Keeping politics out of it...50 years after CHURCHILL' death (just watched the BBC program tonight hosted by Paxman), what do you remember about him, by being there in time or from what you have learrned through parents, school or personal reading etc etc. ? Many on the forum were many years from being born in '65, but must have an opinion. If possible, please keep it respectful, but I certainly am interested in what his legacy is with those generations still alive.
Churchills greatest quote wasn't of the war or as a PM but during Americas prohibition period Winston Churchill said that Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind"
I remember when hitchhiking in Europe many years ago talking to some Czechs, same age as me but obviously influenced by history/parents said that he was hated in Czechoslovakia .India was not too keen on him as he opposed independence for them. He made some mistakes early on but galvanised himself in later years and obviously was someone we look up to during the war,but brought down to earth when not elected after the war. Overall I think a leader but stubborn.
As a person? More faults than the edge of a tectonic plate. As a War time leader? The right man in the right place at the right time. Not many people have as great an impact on the destiny of a country as Churchill did.
I'm in line with this and put Churchill at the top above Elizabeth I and the Duke of Wellington as our greatest war time leader. Impossible not to briefly comment on politics. Internationally he put too much trust in Stalin at Yalta, which he admitted too and lead to a divided Europe until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Domestically poor as seen by the massive swing to Labour in 45, from a conservative point of view, despite being a much revered war time hero, he was a liberal and behind Powell and Thatcher as a modern radical conservative thinker.
Upon being told that a backbench MP had been caught by the press performing indecent acts with a guardsman in St James' Park during one of the coldest February nights in 30 years, Churchill said "Makes you proud to be British doesn't it"! The old Battleaxe MP, Bessie Braddock, once said to Churchill "You are drunk Winston, and not only that, you are disgustingly drunk"! to which Churchill replied "And you are ugly Bessie, and what's more you are disgustingly ugly, but in the morning I shall be sober but you will still be ugly"!
I think of Winston Spencer Churchill as a one trick pony; he was a great wartime leader, but he was only in government due to being a member of the entitled class. That class still rules us.....
The 'class' are they themselves ruled by the 'faceless ones" aka 'the suits" aka 'the new world order'. Doesn't matter which political party is in power they are governed by the above. That is why nothing changes politically and why the USA, Great Britain and Australia are taking in hundreds of thousands of people when there is no work, no accommodation, not enough hospitals an not enough education facilities. Funny that! Watch as they slowly bring down the likes of UKIP. You don't have a say.
True, Roo - but they are the managers/facilitators for global capitalism. They are making the advance of 'The Market' possible. Most of them are very, very rich - and they (many of them) have links to the financial bodies which power capitalism.
Blair is our greatest war time leader. A real hero and legend in this country who will be remembered and revered for centuries.
