29 June 2006

Churchill - Parliament Square




Churchill's statue is in Parliament Square. Brian Haw's protest is close by. I will be posting more photos of statues and other items on plant porn

6 comments:

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I always knew that man had balls of steel. This proves it!

Great photo Jams. I once had a grey tabby cat named Winston in his honor.

jams o donnell said...

He was a very interesting character, like Cromwell whose statue is on teh other side of the road. He did some pretty shitty things but if he had not been PM in 1940 the other candidate, Lord Halifax, would probably have gone for a settlement with Hitler

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Then all you fine English people would either be speaking German or have been made into lampshades.

As much as I revere America's founding fathers, they all had skeletons in their closet. These are truly men of greatness, but they're still, men, after all. What's that quote about man being its own natural enemy? I like that one.

Garth said...

Nice photo Jams, I won't bore you with my opinion of Churchill, I will however bore you with the fact that I've figured out why your blog is classed as porn by the ITiots at my work - because it contains the word porn "Plant Porn and Pussycats" - automatic blockage haha.
Was unable to convince them to unblock it though.

jams o donnell said...

Hmm Pisces I may change how I refer to the photoblog. See if that works.

Mullets, he certainly did have some great patter. I like his retort "Dead birds don't fall out of nests" when he was told his flies were open!

jams o donnell said...

Waistbandlady, that is true. There is not a hero(ine) that does not have feet of clay - statues doubly so!

Churchill's record up to WWII was one of utter failure spotted with some disasters (eg Galipoli in WWI). As leader in WWII he was of coursse successful and that secured his legacy. As a peactetime PM (1951-55) he was pretty mediocre.

When he became PM support for the war was far from absolute. The "miracle" of Dunkirk secured his premiership. Had the whole BEF been lost then he would have been out, Halifax would have been in and Britain would have left the war with all of the attendant consequences.

It wasnt until the Battle of Britain that public opinion swung full square behind the war - a few British Union of Fascist diehards and the hypocritical bastards of the Communist Party aside.

Although it is doubtful that the Reich could have successfully invaded Britain, it would have probably been unneccesary. Without US entry into the war Britain would have been starved into submission by U boat action. Chances are that Britain would have had a puppet government (or at least a compliant one).

As for me I would have spoken german with an Irish accent! My dad would not have had the chance to doctor a birth certificate and leave Ireland to join the RAF at 15!