[Alf]

Originally Posted by Livia

Churchill was a man of his time. Judging people in the past by today’s standards is insane. When Churchill took over in 1940, he headed a coalition wartime government. It wasn’t a great start for him considering that pacifists had spent the 1930s pressing for huge disarmament… which sadly had left our services severely depleted. Churchill was a fighting old b*stard. And what we needed right then was a fighting old b*stard. I can’t imagine what would have happened with anyone else at the helm.

There have been comments made about Roosevelt and Stalin and I want to throw some light on that. Russia had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939, which Germany broke in 1941 when they invaded Russia under Operation Barbarosa. Stalin didn’t join up with us to fight a common enemy, he was pressed into it by having his own country invaded. Similarly, Roosevelt wanted the Russians’ help in the Pacific against the Japanese. Churchill had been trying to get the USA on board since the beginning of the war, but they didn’t join until they themselves were attacked in December 1941. So any help we got from Stalin or from the Roosevelt didn’t happen until 1942. Between 1939 and 1942, we borrowed from the USA. Borrowed. We didn’t finish paying back those war debt to the USA until 2006, so any talk of them swooping in and saving the world is a bit far-fetched, they only entered when they themselves were attacked, and after watching its allies, namely us, stand up to Germany virtually alone for three years, during which time the civilians of the UK were bombed mercilessly. I say we stood “virtually” alone because the Canadians joined us without even waiting for an invitation. Similarly the Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Indians, West Indians… countries from all over, what was then the Empire, were the first to stand up. Also smaller countries like Nepal declared war on Germany, although their impact was obviously limited. But I never hear any of those countries claiming they won the war for us. The Allies won. No one country can take credit.

Churchill lost the General Election in 1945 to Labour, who promised they would build a home fit for heroes. And that went so well that the public voted Churchill back in in 1950.

Had Churchill not been at the helm during WW2 I’m firmly convinced Germany would have taken this country. Furthermore, as a descendant of Holocaust survivors it makes me shake my head to hear people call Churchill a racist when he was fighting Hitler, and when we allied ourselves to Russia out of necessity… and Stalin went on to murder more people even than Hitler (and I should say that far-Left Labour supporters in the UK still carry Stalinist banners today). And let’s look at Roosevelt’s history with people of colour… When Jessie Owens won the 100m at the Berlin Olympics in the 30s, Owens himself said that Hitler, although he did not actually meet him, raised his hand to Owens in recognition. On his return home, Roosevelt ignored him completely, and when he was invited to a reception for medal winning Olympians, he had to enter the hotel through the servants’ entrance. American forces in the UK tried to get pubs and dance halls to segregate the black servicemen and the Brits refused.

Churchill is one of the Greatest Britons because of his service to our country during wartime. We’d tried the appeasers, the talkers, the “I have in my hand a piece of paper” merchants…. And in the end, luckily for us, we got Churchill.

Good post


And just as Churchill was the best person for us in war-time, Jacob Rees-Mogg is the best person for us in Brexit-time (he'll eat the EU for elevenses)