The difference as I see it is integrity - of course I’ve never met the man, he may have been a right cunt, but I think Churchill would have said ‘yes, that’s me, so what?’ whereas Patel, like almost all current politicians, just lies openly when he finds the truth inconvenient and is afraid he may look bad.
I can’t trust or respect a person who does that.
Trusting a piss head will end in tears.
That might well be true, from the point of view of inspiration and commitment. But he did get a shedload of important stuff wrong (e.g. Tonypandy, Gallipoli, he was all over the place on the UK’s nuclear weapons work during WWII etc). How much of that was due to being pissed I don’t know.
I’d caveat that as “one of the greatest wartime leaders” he was ousted fairly rapidly after the war as he wasn’t a great domestic leader. On the cunt bit, I’d agree as he was racist and xenophobic but most people were during that period. He had a really low opinion of the colonies or commonwealth despite how many they sent to fight and die for us.
He does have that quite famous quote of “I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”, so he definitely didn’t try to hide it.
And yes, in some ways a great wartime leader for the UK, in other areas, absolute dumpsterfire (the Bengal famine is thought to have killed anywhere between 800,000–3.8 million people, for example).
I know I harp on about them at times, but the Origin Stories 2-parter podcast on Churchill is fantastic, and he also crops up in quite a few other episodes they’ve done. What’s interesting is that the episodes on him specifically cover a fair number of positives, but when he crops up in other stories, it’s invariably in a negative capacity.
Lopwell itinerary?
Nice idea but I’m not sure that’s possible to do nowadays. I think you would be absolutely hounded by the press until you resigned or were fired. I’m not defending this guy in particular, he’s one of trumps stooges so I’ve no doubt he’s a prick. I am defending the right of politicians to be people with flaws and weaknesses. If we expect everyone of our leaders to be whiter than white then you end up with people in charge who have nothing in common with the general population and no idea about the struggles people face. I want my politicians to have lived a life, been skint, taken drugs in their youth, have an understanding of what it’s like to be the man on the street. Not some rich, holier than thou fckwit who’s worst act has been running through a farmers field.
It also feels like it’s very one-sided. Plenty of issues initially raised about the likes of Tice and Farage and their financial fuckery that peters out into nothing, but comparatively minor issues (up for debate I think whether they were honest mistakes or deliberate) for Labour MPs tend to have quite serious consequences.
Not saying there shouldn’t be consequences for relatively modest fuckups, fwiw, but there should be way more happening for the larger scale, more deliberate shit.
too much of the work thing.
All about the voters, I guess. Labour voters have a bit of a thing about principles and don’t like to see their politicians not paying their taxes. The people who admire Tice and Farage include a lot who would rip the taxpayer off themselves if they got the opportunity and aren’t at all bothered by it.
Agreed, but not really my point. We do need leaders who have lived in the real world, but what I really loathe is the ones who pretend they don’t have any faults when someone asks them about shit they do. Appearance over substance doesn’t cut it for me.
In some weird Karmic death game fortuna matched piss head churchill against speed freak Hitler.
All about the press, I guess.
That is about two thirds of a bottle which seems weird.
Edit. Just googled apparently it was available in pints in those days.
I thought so too and did the same. Pol Roger apparently.
The problem with “life experience” politicians is you end up with cretins like Lauren Bobert and Markwayne Mullin.
Yeah but for every life experience cretin you have ten Oxbridge PPE morons who wouldn’t know the price of milk if you took them to Tesco, shoved a six pint carton up their arse and dragged them across a self scan till.
Things would be easier with the Stronzetto method - Exams + hiring the best from their fields as a part of national service - Wiring all politicians to lie detectors - Wiring media moghuls to the mains. Vetted fundraising and lobbying. Adhesive truth serum - every x3 months.
This administration has completely lost the plot. The cuntery on display is off the charts.
An internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters suggested the US was considering options to punish Nato allies it believed failed to support its war on Iran.