Churchill delivered this speech at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on 3 December 1923, during the British general election campaign. He was then standing as a Liberal candidate for Leicester West and campaigning as a supporter of free trade. The speech is chiefly remembered for his use of an older maxim: a traveller will never complete a journey if he stops to throw a stone at every barking dog. The image presents political activity as requiring persistence and a sense of priorities.

The remark suggests that responding to every criticism, provocation or opponent can divert attention from more important objectives. Churchill introduced the saying with “As someone said”, indicating that he was repeating an existing expression rather than presenting it as his own invention. The speech belongs to a transitional period in his career, shortly before his movement away from the Liberal Party and eventual return to the Conservatives.