Greatest Britons

[PR.]

I haven't really been following this, I watched the Campaign for Isaac Newton which was good but nothing else except the final.

You can see the final 10 here. Winston Churchill won in the end. I was wondering if you agree on that or do you think someone who wasn't on the list should have won? Did you vote? Who for?

I just found it quite interesting, and agreed with Churchill winning.

Also if you could vote for the greatest person in the world who would it be? I'm too dumb to answer such as question but the brainboxes in here might come up with someone?

 

[old.D0LLySh33p]

Wha... how..

Diana is in there???

Madness.

 

[Malfius]

well i suppose he did see us through WW II alright
it all depends on what you class as great.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Of the final 10 I thought Churchill had the most relavance to today in the terms of 'greatness'. Yes he was an incredible idiot about a lot of things, however, the really important stuff he was spot on about.

 

[Embattle]

I agree, although Diana should never of even been in the top ten imo.

 

[dysfunction]

I agree with Winston Churchill winning.

Diana should never have appeared so high on that list. She didnt do anything that special. There are hundreds of ordinary people who do the same kind of charity work as she did and get no recognition for their work because they are not some spoiled rich royal.

 

[throdgrain]

Nelson is a hero of mine , but yeah Winston Churchhill delivered the goods when required , so to speak, and rightly won the competition imo .

Edit,
Oh yeah, and Diana di sweet fuck all as far as Im concerned, and shouldnt have even been in the top ten at all.

 

[Will]

There is a distinct lack of non-English in the greatest Britons.

Its a fix.

 

[xane]

I personally would go for Brunel, in fact there have been accusations of vote rigging to push Churchill ahead.

 

[Gumbo]

Churchill didn't just do the whole WWII thing, he also led the most amazing life, his Autobiographies are well worth reading.

Also as a lot of the panelists said, without him, there's a very good chance we wouldn't have been having that debate. We would have been instructed to vote for mein Fuhrer as the greatest leader of our glorious Reich.

 

[granny]

Churchill was a very intersting man, yes, but I really don't agree with this entire idea that he single-handedly won the war... all a bit iffy in my opinion, but never mind.

I voted for Darwin myself, although Churchill would have been a close second for me - the main thing I admire about Churchill was his struggle with his "black dog" (depression) at a time when it was far less well understood than it is now. But Darwin was teh man \o/

 

[projectarnold]

Unknown Solider should have won it tbh

Diana being in that list makes me sick to my stomach, tabloid newspapers are satans bog roll.

 

[Shocko]

I'm not totally sure how the "Vote as many times as you want" thing worked... Oh, and stopping Internet voting for the final was "teh gh3y", as well.

I voted for Cromwell earlier on, didn't see the programme about him... I didn't see the programme about Brunel either, but i'd say that if he was really a great engineer, then he deserved to win more than Churchill.

Clearly, the fact that Diana made the top ten marks the whole thing down as ridiculous. I'm not going to even contemplate understanding what her finishing in the top 3 means :/ Anyone who voted for her should be locked up, and beaten with a big stick!

 

[legendario]

What constitutes being great?

I see a lot of you disagree with Diana being in the top ten and I have to agree but why exactly wasn't she great?

Do you have to do something great to be great?

I don't think so.

She was an astonishing person. I would worry more that David Beckham and Robbie were even in the top 100.

A true account of the British mentality.

 

[mank!]

Originally posted by legendario
I would worry more that David Beckham and Robbie were even in the top 100.

Beckham has done a lot for English football, reputation wise. Plus he knocked Argentina out of the World Cup It's such a pity that he overshadows players at Man Utd like Giggs and Scholes, both of whom are just as good as Beckham but don't have the same 'social status' as it were. Anyway, I can see why Beckham would be in the 100 Greatest Britons, I'd go nuts if he was anywhere in the top 50 though. Robbie Williams can fuck off and rot somewhere though.

 

[.cage]

Harry hill

 

[xane]

Originally posted by legendario
She was an astonishing person. I would worry more that David Beckham and Robbie were even in the top 100.

So Boy George (46) and Aleister Crowley (73) okay then ?

 

[legendario]

Originally posted by mank!


Beckham has done a lot for English football, reputation wise. Plus he knocked Argentina out of the World Cup It's such a pity that he overshadows players at Man Utd like Giggs and Scholes, both of whom are just as good as Beckham but don't have the same 'social status' as it were. Anyway, I can see why Beckham would be in the 100 Greatest Britons, I'd go nuts if he was anywhere in the top 50 though. Robbie Williams can fuck off and rot somewhere though.

Hes a fucking footballer and has done sweet fuck all for anyone living here.

This is the kind of shit i'm talking about. There are a lot more amazing people who never made the top 100.

 

[legendario]

Originally posted by xane


So Boy George (46) and Aleister Crowley (73) okay then ?

I chose them as an example.

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by legendario


I chose them as an example.

... and not because you are infatuated with Boy George ?

 

[mank!]

Originally posted by legendario


Hes a fucking footballer and has done sweet fuck all for anyone living here.

This is the kind of shit i'm talking about. There are a lot more amazing people who never made the top 100.

Like? It all depends on what criteria you're picking greatness on. We could sit and debate this all day leggie, but I'd much rather finger your arsehole ;[

 

[.cage]

It makes me hurt inside that such a person as robbie williams exists, as he is so shit to the core.

TRAVOLTA WOULD BE THE BESTEST BRITON IF HE WAS A BRITON HUOH HUOH

 

[granny]

Come on be honest people - it should have been called "Briton's Most Famous 100". It's voted on by the general public and as a member of the general public I know full well that what we're fed on a daily basis is celebrity, not achievement.

And we live in a world where simply "being widely known" is seen as an achievement in it's own right - which given that there's several billion of us and only a finite number (honestly) of famous people may actually be a fair judgement

 

[xane]

Originally posted by legendario
I see a lot of you disagree with Diana being in the top ten and I have to agree but why exactly wasn't she great?

How about accepting an invitation to a luxury yacht owned by a controversial foreign businessman who had earlier been involved in bribing members of the UK parliament to ask questions about his application for citizenship, and not only taking the heir to the throne along as well, but cavorting with the aforementioned foreigner's son in full view of the paparazzi ?

Not the sharpest knife in the silver cutlery drawer.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by legendario
I see a lot of you disagree with Diana being in the top ten and I have to agree but why exactly wasn't she great?

She wasnt great because if she didnt do anything while she was around things would be very much the same as they are today.

Others do exactly what she does but are not in the spotlight and therefore do not get the recognition for their work.

If Churchill didnt do what he accomplished things could well have been very different in the world today. That goes for Newton and a few others in the top 10.

IMO...To be great you need to have done things that have made a significant mark in the world. I dont believe Diana did that. Yes she was a nice person and people loved her but she didnt change any aspect of the world we live in...not on any grand scale anyway

 

[Wij]

Darwin. Without question.

 

[xane]

Diana was not only idle in her "greatness", she did a great many things that caused endless problems, she was the modern version of Edward VIII, putting her personal issues before that of the country and its people.

Many of the top ten had failures in their later years, Churchill was far too old when he got elected in 1951 and put the post-war rebuilding of this country under great risk with his policies, Newton was involved in a nasty argument with Liebniz over calculus that nearly split the european scientific community, Lennon married Yoko, Elizabeth failed to return an heir and handed England to the Scots, Cromwell got a little overzealous with the Irish.

The above, apart from perhaps Cromwell, could be forgiven, but Diana, for all her faults, did nothing conspicuous to make her life an overall positive impact on this country.

 

[Wij]

They should have had David Hume in the list. Greatest Scot ever imo.

 

[Will]

Robert Owen, founder of New Lanark

From aboutscotland.com
In an age when children were often illiterate and exploited he introduced the idea of education for all and the then revolutionary idea that children should not be allowed to work in the mills before the age of ten.

 

[lynchet]

Its horrendous Diana was even ON the list anywhere let alone in the top 10, self serving conniving old (*&(*&^


But as for the top -- there can be only one, and this goes for all countries too....

William Shakespeare ----- great scientists, leaders, engineers and fighters are very important and I respect them greatly but art is the soul of a country/people that they fight/build to maintain. The creators of the soul are the truly great and none more so than Shakespeare.

Unfortunately I think a lot of people are put off Shakespeare by uninspired English teachers trolling through it at school, but done and seen as it should be on stage it can be fantastic.