Posted on 11/22/2002 4:53:32 AM PST by 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.
No relation to Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, I hope!
(A Discworld reference...)
Ankh-Morpork's most acclaimed architect. During his lifetime his name was often associated with varied curses preceding or following it. Although more commonly known as "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, he had many other titles, including 'Bloody Stupid "It Might Look A Bit Messy Now But Just You Come Back In Five Hundred Years Time" Johnson'.
Despite being a remarkable architect, his downfall lay in his numerical skills, or more accurately, scales. Famed are his ornamental cruet set (designed for Mad Lord Snapcase, the saltshaker now houses four families, the pepper shaker is used for grain storage), and the Colossus of Ankh-Morpork (kept in a matchbox by the caretaker of the Dwarf Bread Museum. His two masterpieces are without doubt the Palace grounds, with it's hoho (like a haha, only deeper) and the Unseen University organ (currently played by the University Librarian, the organ has over 400 knobs, the purpose of many is unknown).
Another of his remarked achievements was an attempt at making an enormous pie. Unfortunately the whistling blackbird statue designed to relieve internal pressures was not finished on schedule and is now in Hide Park as a memorial to those lost in the explosion.
Of course B.S.Johnson's greatest gift to Morpork would have to be the phrase "Well you've really Johnsoned that up."
"I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our two peoples, not for any purpose of gaining invidious material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandisement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honour that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes."
-Winston S. Churchill
The Price of Greatness is Responsibility
Harvard, 1943
Should we ask about the lotteries and the price to read his memoirs? Shall we ask about his crossing the aisle from Tory to Labour to Tory?
Then there are the Aussies. Shall we ask them about Mr Churchill?
Will we even comprehend their reply, let alone be able to spell-check it?
;-)
You're misinformed from the get-go. He went to the Liberals, not Labour.
Ivan
I am not a fan of Di and positively dislike Lennon (although did like some of his music) but even if I did like them there is not much to indicate greatness.
I would probably vote for Churchill although Viscount Garnet Wolsley would be right up there too.
I also think Bernard L Montgomery was under-rated by history. The reason I think he was great is because his opponents rated him so highly.
What about Bishop Langly (Langely? Langley? sp?)who was insturmental in pushing through the Magna Carta? W/o his constant prodding it probably would have never been written, much less signed.
"O, Runnymead, O Runnymead. What say the reeds at Runnymead..."
Huh? The Tories came into power starting in 1935, well before hostilities began, unless you're speaking from a Sino-centric point of view.
Churchill was a liberal, for a while, never a labourite.
Its impossible to underrate Monty. I think Operation Market-Garden proved that rather well.
The reason I think he was great is because his opponents rated him so highly.
His biggest opponents were in the Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff. But I assume you're towing the line, "if the Wehrmacht says so, it must be true!"
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. Of course, they boosted it further still when Monty started winning. But the British victories had nothing to do with Monty's skill as a commander, and everything to do with who had the supplies.
I think the record shows that Montgomery is vastly over-rated. He won precious few battles and -none- where he did not have overwhelming superiority. The Americans were on the brink of asking for his removal in Normandy.
There's a book called "Churchill and the Montgomery Myth" by R.W. Thompson. Thompson says that Montgomery's thinking didn't advance one whit from 1918 until the day he died. The record confirms it.
Walt
Boadicea for best Briton.
Churchill for best American. His mother was American, and he himself was awarded honorary American citizenship at a time when the British couldn't care less for him.
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