Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[bigfella]

Hi All

I just read an article which gave the results of a poll of 3000 people by a UK radio station. One of the results was that more than a third of those surveyed thought that Winston Churchill was a fictitious character and that almost half thought that Sherlock Holmes was a real person.

Could that be a real representation of the people of the UK?

Regards David

Added: I just noticed that RickF posted something of a similar nature in the Jokes section

[elmo]

Yep, sad to say, it is! I made this point a while ago on a similar thread - but I reckon at least 9 out of 10 UK citizens are completely ignorant when it comes to UK history... Winston who??  ::) They should be FORCED to do history in my opinion - and then tested on it before being allowed to go abroad on holiday!    Just think of all those empty sunbeds!! 

[bigfella]

Sorry was that you Elmo, I read it on the NineMSN website.
I agree, you cant know where you are going unless you know where you have been. History of ones country should be a compulsory subject for everyone. Unfortunately it is an elective subject in Australian schools.

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

I bear this illustrious surname and for years have said, when giving it to people to write down, that it's  " as in 'Winston' ".

This now causes blank looks so I've changed it to   " as in Churchill Insurance "

Sign of the times I'm afraid.  :(

Cheers ....  Ken Churchill

[sheerline]

It's very sad isn't it, when you consider the number of lives lost in the last war to give them the freedom they enjoy today. Perhaps it should be compulsory for everyone to visit the war graves in France and be made aware of those responsible for their very existance. He was a very contravesial figure but love him or hate him,..He was the right man for the job.
I know little of history and used to find the subject exceedingly boring.. all those dates and places from our distant past, but I suppose growing up with parents who had just come through the last big nightmare and seeing remnants of it everywhere made me aware of our recent history at least.
I suppose youngsters have as much interest in the last war as I have about the Battle of Culloden (which I suppose I should do really).

[Colin Bishop]

I suppose youngsters have as much interest in the last war as I have about the Battle of Culloden (which I suppose I should do really).

They might if they's been properly educated. Just like the people on this Forum who know nothing about "electrics". Doesn't mean they are fools, they just haven't been told.

Still, they say "ignorance is bliss" (well it is until you stick your finger in a power socket or go looking for a gas leak with a lighted match...)

[Bunkerbarge]

Part of the problem is that as time goes on a higher percentage of the population are not of British ancestry but are first or second generation imigrants.  They have no interest in our culture, history or heritage and are certainly not told anything about it. 

Thier children are not educated about it in schools because our education system is a joke so we are effectively slowly and surely cutting off our past.

I am in the process of reading a biography of the "Battle of Trafalgar" which has had me close to tears a couple of times.  What people went through for the good of this country is staggerring and this was a mere two hundred years ago.  Add the first world war only 100 years later and it continues to amaze me that we do not promote our history considerably more actively, especially in schools.

Unfortunately there is too much in our history that would offend too many of the PC idiots nowadays which is why they seem to insist on watering it all down and manipulating it.

It remains to be seem whether the new Dam Busters Movie will actually contain a dog called "Nigger" or not.

Added to this the British people are getting so fed up with it all they are all emigrating to foreign countries so it can only be a matter of time before the entire country is inhabited with people who know nothing of thier place of residence.

[Marks Model Bits]

Hi, carrying on with the subject of history in uk schools. A couple of years ago when Hannah was still in junior school they were studying the 2nd world war, the teacher asked the class what year the war started, all of the children who answered could not get the year right, so hannah put up her hand and told the teacher it was 1919. The teacher told Hannah she was wrong, but Hannah argued with her and then said the fighting started in 1939 but the war started with the signing of the Treaty of Versilles in 1919.
Would you believe the teacher had NEVER heard of the Treaty of Versilles, so what hope do the children have to learn history. (By the way history is Hannahs favourite subject!!!)

Mark.

[sheerline]

UK tv History channel has been running WW2 programmes for ages so it's all out there for them to see.. they don't even have to pick up a book. I guess the vast majority would rather sit and watch Robocop or Terminator or even a Soap than watch programmes about the war. I suppose from a youngsters point of view thats understandable but given the amount of footage taken during the last war, don't the schools back up such a history lesson with film rather than just tell the youngsters to read about it? The images were very powerful and you would think that would make some of it stick. I suppose the pc minded education system would baulk at the prospect of youngsters seeing such horrors but for some reason violent films are watched over and over again as repeats. 

[Arrow5]

Bunkie, I`m sure the movie/film will have a dog called "Afro-American" and the aircraft will be   B-17s.  Escorting fighters will be P-51 Mustangs flown by the Tuscagee pilots. Oh the dams are near Bahgdad, just south of Peking..in North Korea.  Just to make sure the film is popular in USA.

[Bunkerbarge]

Bunkie, I`m sure the movie/film will have a dog called "Afro-American" and the aircraft will be   B-17s.  Escorting fighters will be P-51 Mustangs flown by the Tuscagee pilots. Oh the dams are near Bahgdad, just south of Peking..in North Korea.  Just to make sure the film is popular in USA.

You're probably right!!!

[Colin Bishop]

It'll be a complete Enigma then!

[elmo]

Someone just suggested to me they are wrong, that Winston Churchill is quite clearly a Mr     

[gingyer]

The problem is shocking the people do not even know when
remembrance day is.
I was in a school doing some work and like Hannah they too were doing
the 2nd world war and had a large display on the board.
the thing that struck me and I recommended to the head teacher
that the person teaching this section should be sacked for being utterly useless

1) the 3 main aircraft of the war was the spitfire,hurricane and the Luftwaffe
2) D-day was the day the people went to france ON HOLIDAY
3) Adolf Hitler was a Jew

with idiots like this is it any wonder the future is grim

[Bryan Young]

I bear this illustrious surname and for years have said, when giving it to people to write down, that it's  " as in 'Winston' ".

This now causes blank looks so I've changed it to   " as in Churchill Insurance "

Sign of the times I'm afraid.  :(

Cheers ....  Ken Churchill

Sorry, much as I admire the "Winston" Churchill, I refuse to buy Insurance from a dog who looks like John Prescott.

[OMK]

...Just to make sure the film is popular in USA.

That much is true.

A good pal of mine from California emailed me recently. In a similar vein to Bigfella's observation, he tells me that the majority of American folk (not just the kids) think that Winston Churchill was one of theirs.

[elmo]

...Just to make sure the film is popular in USA.

That much is true.

A good pal of mine from California emailed me recently. In a similar vein to Bigfella's observation, he tells me that the majority of American folk (not just the kids) think that Winston Churchill was one of theirs.

Technically I suppose you could say he was one of theirs... 'cos his mother, Jennie Jerome was an American citizen. 

[malcolmfrary]

A good pal of mine from California emailed me recently. In a similar vein to Bigfella's observation, he tells me that the majority of American folk (not just the kids) think that Winston Churchill was one of theirs.

Oddly enough, some of his family tree was from over the water.
Slow typing "SNAP!" Elmo.

One of the interviewees on the telly was asked about King Arthur.  "Well.....there was a movie about him, so he must be real".
When I was at school, history was taught for GCE by the master with the least personality and ability certainly in the school, possibly in the north west, although the facts he presented were accurate according to the books.  He also took the last two years of Latin.  I was a dismal failure at that as well, but I was not in the minority.  Despite that, I have always been interested in history, and being forced into a close look at the Illiad gave me a liking for Sci-Fi.

[djrobbo]

Hi guys....Its not only ignorance of the war and its players that is causing the afore said problems , buy it seems that a certain section of our esteemed leaders etc , are determined to airbrush out certain facts of the last conflict ...It is a fact that every german aircraft that took part in world war two carried a swastika on the tail fin , aswell as the national markings of crosses etc , Now if you purchase an airfix kit of a german aircraft there are no swastika,s on the decal sheet or on the box art..there are other kit manufacturers that follow this line aswell , it seems that they have taken to rewriting the facts of history to satisfy the p.c brigade , a small thing i know but it makes you wonder what other things they are trying to make out didn't happen !!!!!

                regards........bob.

[gingyer]

Bob,
The reason the swastika is not in a decal sheet
is that in germany it is illegal to have a swastika so
it is easier for the manufacturers to have them removed
from all kits rather than just a few going to germany

Colin

[sheerline]

It's annoying DJ but it does make me chuckle to reflect on the fact that the hated Swastika now causes disappointment due to its absence!

[banjo]

Never mind Churchill there must be millions who have never heard of Dick Barton, or Braddock( who won the Battle of Britain)or Tupper the Tough of the Track.
And what about that guy who ran round Afghanistan with his cricket Bat.
Was your school badge on the front of The Rover?
dIB dIB Dib....

hmmm that bad old days..




 

[elmo]

Never mind Churchill there must be millions who have never heard of Dick Barton, or Braddock( who won the Battle of Britain)or Tupper the Tough of the Track.
And what about that guy who ran round Afghanistan with his cricket Bat.
Was your school badge on the front of The Rover?
dIB dIB Dib....

hmmm that bad old days..




 

Nope, sorry, it were Biggles and Co. who won the Battle of Britain AND the '14-'18 air war against the Hun as well (though not necessarily in that order!) 

[bigfella]

I always thought it was Micheal Caine on the Brits side and John Wayne on the Yanks side who won all wars.

[elmo]

I always thought it was Micheal Caine on the Brits side and John Wayne on the Yanks side who won all wars.

Now then, not quite, 'cos if you watched that film, Michael Caine apparently 'just blew up!' and sadly there was nobody around on the German side to say those immortal words.. 'you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!!  (in German of course!)