Indeed Churchill was a walking policy disaster across the board. The architect of the Gallipoli tragedy of 1915 nearly wrecked the international financial system by messing with the price of gold and destabilising the gold standard, which cost him his slot in the Cabinet. By 1931, he was a backbencher, consorting with the likes of the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Some prominent Germans even considered him a suitable candidate to head a pro-Nazi “Vichy” government in Britain.