Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 just at the right time. From the beginning, he felt fate had a role for him and this seemed to be his time to shine. For years in the 1930s, he had been warning of the danger posed to Europe by Germany. His rants were usually ignored and the thinking at the time was "Oh Winston is at it again"!
Destiny was with this aristocrat as he led Britain through the dark days of the Blitz. Known for his cigars, his speeches and his liking of alcohol this relic from Victorian times made his mark on history.
Many wish we had a leader like that today instead of the weak Theresa May.
Churchill's dark side
To our society, some of Churchill's views would seem abhorrent. For example, he despised Indians, allowing over 5 million people in Bengal to starve to death. In Ireland when serving as a minister (not Prime Minister) he used British troops on an Irish insurrection. They committed heinous atrocities against Irish civilians because of the actions of the IRA. He also sent troops and a gunboat to Liverpool to crush a strike in the 1920s. Churchill allowed a British Commander to allegedly burn down a village in Egypt in 1951 during the Suez Crisis.
Churchill was for keeping in place the British aristocracy and for preserving the British Empire. In his political life, he had gone from left to right.
During the 1930s - in his so-called wilderness years - he admired Mussolini. Churchill said he could understand why the Germans had voted for a certain moustachioed leader in 1933. The only reason Churchill became openly hostile to Germany is that it threatened Britain.
Summary
Depending on your political leanings, Churchill was either a villain or a hero.
To leftist groups like the Socialist Workers Party Winston represents everything that is wrong with the world. He represents oppression, imperialism, racism and all the others 'isms' you care to mention. Meanwhile, to parties of the right, he was a hero and saved the world from German tyranny. The crimes he committed were necessary evils as far as they are concerned.
In the world today we have leaders like him in Putin, Trump and Netanyahu. All these three could be labelled fascist in their policies both at home and abroad. It will be interesting to see how history judges these politicians in years to come.
Finally, it has to be admitted, Winston Churchill did get Britain through the 39 - 45 war, however, he was certainly no angel.
