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of 1956, Britain was enjoying increasing prosperity and a general upturn in the national mood. This feeling was widely regarded as having been typified by
Macmillan's assertion in July 1957 that "most of our people have never had it so good" (often cited as "you've never had it so good"), though
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Other examples of
Macmillan's apparent air of confidence and "unflappability" (a characteristic frequently attributed to him during this period, despite his apparent nervousness on big Parliamentary occasions) included his reference in 1958 to the resignation of
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in 1963 that he had three shooting suits and "rather like them", the "grouse-moor" image which had, only a few years earlier, been seen as "enhancing the backdrop of the Prime
Minister's unflappability", now seemed something of a liability.
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put it, "Macmillan in 1959 seemed to fit in with the mood of the country; Macmillan in 1962 seemed left behind by the tide. The slogan
Supermac ... now totally inapposite". Similarly, although Macmillan told journalist
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some, particularly in retrospect, saw it as a complacent and materialistic observation, maybe unaware that
Macmillan had added the warning that "what is beginning to worry some of us is ... 'Is it too good to last?'".
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as "the fourteenth Mr Wilson". In the event, Sir Alec
Douglas-Home, as he became after disclaiming his peerage, lost the 1964 general election by a very small margin.
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Macmillan lived for another 23 years. The "Supermac" image was more fondly recalled in the years immediately before his death in 1986 as, having accepted an
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to meet this one" - that it would rain on polling day. (It did not, in fact, rain on 9 October, but
Macmillan won the election with a majority in the
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showing
Macmillan walking away with a ladder and a tin of paint from a wall on which had been emblazoned the words, "We've Never Had It So Often".
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as
Macmillan's successor served to perpetuate the "grouse moor" image, although Home responded to jibes about his background by referring to
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With its rather dismissive caption, "How to Try to
Continue to be Top Without Actually Having Been There", the cartoon image, by "Vicky" (
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on 6 November 1958. It depicted a caricature of Harold Macmillan, the British Prime Minister at the time, in the guise of the
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89:" (mostly spelt without a hyphen) was widely and enduringly applied as a nickname for Macmillan. Though initially an
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presiding over a "house full", while astonished members of the public, queuing for seats at the outrageous price of
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all tended to portray Macmillan as an aristocratic and rather doddery figure of fun (journalist
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coinage, it soon rebounded to Macmillan's advantage, becoming an integral part of his image.
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This article is about a depiction of politician Harold Macmillan. For other uses, see
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The final years of Macmillan's premiership were difficult ones, coinciding with the
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on his 90th birthday in 1984 ("Earl Supermac!" according to a headline in the
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Supermanship, or, How to Continue to Stay Top without Actually Falling Apart
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Statement at London Airport, 7 January 1957: see Harold Macmillan (1971)
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famously identified as the one in which "sexual intercourse began") was
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In a subsequent cartoon, a cinema named the "Torytz" (after "
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1958 cartoon image of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
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Cultural depictions of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
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The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
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Alistair Horne (1989) Macmillan: Volume II 1957-1986
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77:The cartoon was signed "Vicky – with apologies to
251:In 1963, after the Government had withstood the
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530:Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Quotations
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193:boom of the early 1960s, in which the revue
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337:See J. M. & M. J. Cohen (1995 edition)
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797:1963 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours
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286:Renaissance of the 1980s: "Earl Supermac"
136:reflected an age in which, following the
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599:Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton
407:Harold Macmillan, Diary, 17 April 1956
387:See, for example, Curtis A. Amlund in
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99:Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan
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696:1959 United Kingdom general election
563:The original Vicky cartoon from 1958
165:and two other Treasury Ministers,
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812:St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes
726:Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
454:Macmillan: A Study in Ambiguity
378:Speech at Bedford, 20 July 1957
351:Macmillan: A Study in Ambiguity
691:US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement
543:Macmillan: Volume II 1957-1986
219:dubbed him "the walrus" after
144:period and the débâcle of the
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44:was a 1958 cartoon image of
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160:Chancellor of the Exchequer
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212:That Was the Week That Was
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122:12 shillings and sixpence
34:Supermac (disambiguation)
838:British political satire
706:Night of the Long Knives
681:1945 Bromley by-election
430:The Day Before Yesterday
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367:The Day Before Yesterday
112:Chairman, Quintin Hogg,
55:) first appeared in the
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486:Lord Denning's Report
440:Bernard Levin (1970)
428:Alan Thompson (1971)
863:Parodies of Superman
807:Macmillan Publishers
686:Macmillan government
324:Never Had It So Good
652:Lady Caroline Faber
226:Alice in Wonderland
116:, was dressed as a
488:(1963), Cmnd. 2152
442:The Pendulum Years
278:Opposition leader
209:television series
163:Peter Thorneycroft
128:Heyday: late 1950s
110:Conservative Party
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272:14th Earl of Home
196:Beyond the Fringe
114:Viscount Hailsham
16:(Redirected from
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167:Nigel Birch
146:Suez Crisis
41:"Super-Mac"
843:Caricature
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764:(TV, 2017)
737:Depictions
654:(daughter)
517:(ed 1971)
467:, May 1963
306:References
296:Daily Mail
63:comic-book
761:The Crown
175:Gaitskell
138:austerity
18:Super-Mac
745:Supermac
205:and the
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87:Supermac
67:Superman
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504:, 1974)
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788:(1938)
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642:(wife)
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389:Oxford
276:Labour
263:'s in
191:satire
91:ironic
648:(son)
465:Queen
318:See,
73:Image
65:hero
513:See
320:e.g.
261:Trog
169:and
106:Tory
223:in
207:BBC
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