38. It is interesting that Churchill, at least in one instance, impatiently confused the two. On 5 February 1940, he told the newspaper proprietor Cecil King, “This time of war the machinery of government was so strong that it could largely afford to ignore popular feeling.” More bluntly, he thought that Prime Minister Chamberlain “could afford to say: ‘to hell with public opinion’” (Bell, “British Public Opinion on the War,” 38, citing Cecil H. King, With Malice Toward None, 22). Bell adds, “[And yet] it was eventually public opinion expressed through the press and the House of Commons, which brought down Chamberlain’s government” — and brought Churchill to power (ibid.).