Churchill set to win Greatest Briton

The Evening Standard ^ | November 22, 2002 | Patrick Sawer

[MadIvan]

Winston Churchill is poised to become the Greatest Briton when voting closes in the BBC2 poll on Sunday night.

He currently lies in third place behind Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Princess Diana but a late surge in voting is expected to put him in pole position.

There has been a rush of between 90,000 and 100,000 votes for each of the top 10 candidates in the Great Britons series. Tonight, former Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam makes the case for Britain's great wartime prime minister.

A BBC2 spokeswoman said: "Brunel is ahead by quite a margin but he is not unbeatable. There are 90,000 votes between Brunel in first place and Churchill in third, with Diana slightly ahead of Churchill in second place."

Voting will close at 10.45pm, as Anne Robinson and Peter Snow present the closing arguments. The programme will feature some of the candidates' descendants and celebrity backers, including Churchill's granddaughter Emma Soames, and David Bellamy supporting Charles Darwin. The result will be announced around 11pm.

Behind Churchill is Darwin, then William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, John Lennon, Elizabeth I, Horatio Nelson and Oliver Cromwell. When Diana shot into second place, critics argued the show's format was ill-suited to serious assessment.

Then it was revealed that students at Brunel University had tried to push their man to the top with block voting. But the rows have not stopped Britons flocking to vote.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Boadicea for best Briton.

Wasn't Boadicea one of the Page3.com birds?

Walt

[Vic3O3]

Hey, Ivan, can you post a link to the voting site? We'd like to help make sure Winnie wins!

[Jonah Hex]

No, that was Bodacious.

:-)

[MadIvan]

See post 15.

Regards, Ivan

[Vic3O3]

You might want to ping the HS list so we can go out & vote for Sir Winston!

[WhiskeyPapa]

No, that was Bodacious.

LOL!!

Walt

[andy_card]

Wasn't Boadicea one of the Page3.com birds?

Quite possibly. I didn't realize you were a fan of the Goth-Iron Age look.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Wasn't Boadicea one of the Page3.com birds?

Quite possibly. I didn't realize you were a fan of the Goth-Iron Age look.

Oh yeah.

Not only was Boadicea a great icon for freedom for oppression, she was a great exponent of unbound bosoms in action.

Walt

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Great man. Great quote.

[xp38]

To me beyond all his abilities the most wonderful thing about Churchill was his wit and sense of humour. The guy knew how to live too.

[moyden]

Greatest leaders in modern history:

1. George Washington

2. Queen Victoria

3. Winston Churchill

4. Abraham Lincoln

5. Ghandi

6. FDR

7. Ronald Reagan

8. Margaret Thatcher

9. Andrew Jackson

10. (General) Dwight Eisenhower

[RJL]

Winston S Churchill would be my choice too.

I know I am not alone in saying I am very proud to have one of the United States warships named the USS Winston S Churchill.

[Mike Darancette]

I would rate Churchill as #1 with Elizabeth I in second place.

It is my opinion that Churchill's masterwork "A History of the English Speaking People" be required reading in all American high schools.

[Teacup]

He was surely a great man. He gets my vote.

[Billthedrill]

Well, Brunel was actually quite an astonishing fellow, the Great Northern despite. Jacob Bronowski introduced me to his accomplishments in The Ascent of Man. He helped shape the Industrial Revolution, and hence the modern world.

But Churchill is in quite another category, IMHO, a one-man argument for the nearly-defunct Great Man approach to historiography. One trembles to think what the 20th century would have been like if a single Boer bullet had offed a young, upstart journalist on horseback. His performance during WWII was such as to eclipse a list of other accomplishments as long as your arm (including a 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature - not what I'd term exactly second-tier).

But the world has changed, and now the only real measure of human accomplishment has to be the quality of a person's posts to FreeRepublic, that and the tasteful consumption of divers alcoholic beverages and a yen for rooting for losing cricket teams. As it's a secret ballot my selection must remain private, but I betcha MadIvan's blushing...

[Gary_Lincoln]

Dear Jessica,

IKB was a Victorian engineer par excellence, in an age when Briton was packed with brilliant engineers. He basically broke all boundaries in engineering practice and built many railways, bridges, ships, wonderful iron buildings and countless other marvels. He is epitomised by his incredible daring.

His being voted to the number one position is all the more remarkable as in today's Britain many people regard engineering as "uncool".

He will either finish first or second, either way he was truly great.


Regards


Gary

[Gary_Lincoln]

Absolutely right. Monty was despised in his own general staff. Field Marshall Slim, however, has been relatively forgotten by history- but is by far the most able British Army commander of the second world war .

[WhiskeyPapa]

One of the things I really don't understand is why Erwin Rommel is rated so high in the English-speaking world. The English created his reputation as a demi-God as an excuse for why he kept handing their asses to them, until he ran out of supplies.

Bingo.

My aunt Petunia could win with the advantages Monty had.

Walt

[zapiks44]

Boadicea makes Joan-of-Arc look like a wimp. Undoubtedly the greatest female warrior of all time.

As for greatest Briton, I'm surprised few have mentioned William the Conquerer. Hastings is one of THE most decisive battles in history.