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 Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft and two other Treasury Ministers, Nigel Birch and Enoch Powell, as "little local difficulties", and his mocking promise during the 1959 general election campaign - "I challenge Mr Gaitskell to meet this one" - that it would rain on polling day.
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 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?'". The creation of Supermac reflected an age in which, following the austerity of the post- Second World War period and the débâcle of the Suez Crisis of 1956, Britain was enjoying increasing prosperity and a general upturn in the national mood. The Conservative Party Chairman, Quintin Hogg, Viscount Hailsham, was dressed as a commissionaire presiding over a "house full", while astonished members of the public, queuing for seats at the outrageous price of 12 shillings and sixpence, marvelled at the image of Supermac. A super-colossal-top-production in true-blue colour". In a subsequent cartoon, a cinema named the "Torytz" (after " Tory") was portrayed with posters proclaiming "Supermac - He's terrific - He's stupendous. Thorpe's biography of Macmillan (2010) was entitled Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan. Though initially an ironic coinage, it soon rebounded to Macmillan’s advantage, becoming an integral part of his image. The figure quickly became a staple of Vicky’s output and " Supermac" (mostly spelt without a hyphen) was widely and enduringly applied as a nickname for Macmillan.
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The cartoon was signed "Vicky – with apologies to Stephen Potter", an acknowledgement of the full title of Potter's book of 1958, Supermanship, or, How to Continue to Stay Top without Actually Falling Apart.
4 Renaissance of the 1980s: "Earl Supermac".
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