100 Greatest Britons



Cheesy Feet said:
Saved Britains arse in WW2..that's all you need to know..bloke is a British legend.
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It isn't all you need to know. To take from another contender in the poll you should see them warts and all. He was an absolutely horrific man and made some appalling decisions that caused many many deaths but he also was a brilliant war time PM. These aspects of his life are evidently not mutually exclusive and one does not detract from the other. He is not a super hero and nor is he a pantomime villain. He was a deeply troubled man who was responsible for making some massive decisions. Not all of them were made wisely or morally.
 
16th for destroying half the country, not bad for the milk snatcher.
67th for the war mongering Tony Blair
CatRyan said:
It isn't all you need to know. To take from another contender in the poll you should see them warts and all. He was an absolutely horrific man and made some appalling decisions that caused many many deaths but he also was a brilliant war time PM. These aspects of his life are evidently not mutually exclusive and one does not detract from the other. He is not a super hero and nor is he a pantomime villain. He was a deeply troubled man who was responsible for making some massive decisions. Not all of them were made wisely or morally.
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This is the correct viewpoint. A great leader for a horrific time from a UK point of view, but I'm not sure there are many Indian citizens who think of Churchill as anything but a horrific human being.

Unfortunately we now live in a world where if a TV company asked the question "Is Britain racist?" then they'd book a black man who despises white people to represent one side and a neo-Nazi to represent the other.

Discourse just isn't serious anymore.
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FalkirkMackem said:
My granda worked down a mine while this chancer lived a life of luxury from birth to death

Know which one I’d consider great
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My Grandad too.
He hated Churchill for sending troops to intervene in the Welsh miners strikes in 1910 when he was Home Secretary.
My Grandad was a young boy working in the Welsh mines at the time.
Sadly he died before I was born, so I didn’t get the chance to talk about it with him.
 
I think if they re-did this now Turing would be top 5 even 1st. His profile has increased and they is a lot more sympathy to his life along with his mindblowing genius and contribution.

My top 3 would be Turing, Faraday and John Harrison
 
FalkirkMackem said:
My granda worked down a mine while this chancer lived a life of luxury from birth to death

Know which one I’d consider great
Click to expand...
One of my grandmothers (married to my grandad who was a miner) loathed Churchill.

He called miners ‘the rats down the mines’ iirc and sent soldiers to break strikes in Wales.

There’s no doubt that he galvanised the WW2 effort but his peacetime record is shoddy.
 

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