benperkins
11-25-2002, 7:40am
[b]From Yahoo (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/021125/80/dfdti.html)
Churchill named greatest ever Briton
LONDON (Reuters) - Wartime leader Winston Churchill, whose bulldog spirit inspired the nation during World War Two, has been voted the greatest ever Briton in a BBC poll.
The cigar-puffing former prime minister beat Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel into second place and Princess Diana into third.
"I think it's clear that Churchill was the choice of the people," former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, who promoted Churchill during the voting, said after the result was announced on BBC Two.
"Churchill would have been very pleased about that because he was such a fundamental believer in democracy."
Churchill is renowned in Britain for his fiery speeches urging Britons to unite against German dictator Adolf Hitler and his allies during World War Two.
In one of his most famous deliveries, to parliament in 1940, he said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
After taking office in the same year, he said it was "as if I was walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for the hour and this trial".
By the time of his death in 1965, he had twice been prime minister, swapped political parties twice, served as a soldier and won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his history books.
His success in the BBC vote was good news for the man who once noted of his fellow countrymen: "They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst."
While the poll reinforces Churchill's legacy in Britain, his reputation still divides people across the world.
U.S. President George W. Bush paid tribute to Churchill last year after accepting a bust of the former PM from the British ambassador. Bush said Churchill was "a constant reminder of what a great leader is like".
However, a German historian last week branded Churchill a "war criminal" after he sanctioned bombing civilian population centres during the war.
I wanted Shakespere to win :(
Ben
Churchill named greatest ever Briton
LONDON (Reuters) - Wartime leader Winston Churchill, whose bulldog spirit inspired the nation during World War Two, has been voted the greatest ever Briton in a BBC poll.
The cigar-puffing former prime minister beat Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel into second place and Princess Diana into third.
"I think it's clear that Churchill was the choice of the people," former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, who promoted Churchill during the voting, said after the result was announced on BBC Two.
"Churchill would have been very pleased about that because he was such a fundamental believer in democracy."
Churchill is renowned in Britain for his fiery speeches urging Britons to unite against German dictator Adolf Hitler and his allies during World War Two.
In one of his most famous deliveries, to parliament in 1940, he said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
After taking office in the same year, he said it was "as if I was walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for the hour and this trial".
By the time of his death in 1965, he had twice been prime minister, swapped political parties twice, served as a soldier and won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his history books.
His success in the BBC vote was good news for the man who once noted of his fellow countrymen: "They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst."
While the poll reinforces Churchill's legacy in Britain, his reputation still divides people across the world.
U.S. President George W. Bush paid tribute to Churchill last year after accepting a bust of the former PM from the British ambassador. Bush said Churchill was "a constant reminder of what a great leader is like".
However, a German historian last week branded Churchill a "war criminal" after he sanctioned bombing civilian population centres during the war.
I wanted Shakespere to win :(
Ben