Editing Stanley Baldwin (section)

===Comments on politics===
During the war, Churchill consulted him only once, in February 1943, on the advisability of his speaking out strongly against the continued neutrality of [[Éamon de Valera]]'s [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]. Baldwin saw the draft of Churchill's speech and advised against it, which Churchill followed.<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, pp. 1065–6.</ref> A few months after this visit to Churchill, Baldwin told Harold Nicolson, "I went into Downing Street.... a happy man. Of course it was partly because an old buffer like me enjoys feeling that he is still not quite out of things. But it was also pure patriotic joy that my country at such a time should have found such a leader. The furnace of the war has smeltered out all base metals from him".<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 1065.</ref> To D. H. Barber, Baldwin wrote of Churchill: "You can take it from me he is a really big man, the War has brought out the best that was in him. His head isn't turned the least little bit by the great position he occupies in the eyes of the world. I pray he is spared to see us through".<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 066.</ref>

In private, Baldwin defended his conduct in the 1930s:

<blockquote>the critics have no historical sense. I have no Cabinet papers by me and do not want to trust my memory. But recall the Fulham election, the peace ballot, Singapore, sanctions, Malta. The English will only learn by example. When I first heard of Hitler, when Ribbentrop came to see me, I thought they were all crazy. I think I brought Ramsay and Simon to meet Ribbentrop. Remember that Ramsay's health was breaking up in the last two years. He had lost his nerve in the House in the last year. I had to take all the important speeches. The moment he went, I prepared for a general election and got a bigger majority for rearmament. No power on earth could have got rearmament without a general election except by a big split. Simon was inefficient. I had to lead the House, keep the machine together with those Labour fellows.<ref name="Middlemas5">Middlemas and Barnes, p. 1063.</ref></blockquote>

In December 1944, strongly advised by friends, Baldwin decided to respond to criticisms of him through a biographer. He asked [[G. M. Young]], who accepted, and asked Churchill to grant permission to Young to see Cabinet papers. Baldwin wrote:

<blockquote>I am the last person to complain of fair criticism, but when one book after another appears and I am compared, for example, to [[Pierre Laval|Laval]], my gorge rises; but I am crippled and cannot go and examine the files of the Cabinet Office. Could G. M. Young go on my behalf?<ref name="Middlemas5"/></blockquote>