One had enjoyed two terms of power and was the most successful politician of his generation.
The other was his increasingly impatient successor, desperate to wrestle free the levers of power. Both men were entangled in a bitter war of words over a stalling resignation.
The year was not 2007, when Tony Blair finally ceded power to Gordon Brown, but 1954, when a series of incendiary rows between Winston Churchill and his increasingly impatient successor, Anthony Eden, were raging in Westminster, proving that in politics, at least, some things never change.
The fascinating insights into Churchill's final months in office, are found in top secret cabinet diaries, which are published for the first time today, proves that in politics, at least, some things never change.
