To Err is British

[caddyman]

The Times has an interesting article today, Sorry, but it’s all been a huge mistake.

The idea is based on something put together by US blogger Bobvis, who listed his personal top 10 worst errors in US history, which include the failure to annexe the whole or part of Canada and the frittering of the Texas oil reserves. The Times picked up the idea and applied it to British history, asking people to log on and debate/vote for their top 10 of Britain’s greatest historical follies.

As you might expect, some are serious and some are frivolous. For some reason The Times only prints nine, and probably just a random nine at that:

To err is British
1 The bowler hat, or rather its demise
2 Chamberlain and his piece of paper in 1938, which announced the appeasement of Hitler
3 Brian Clough, whose absence from the England manager’s bench was a disaster, according to one contributor
4 The bombing of Dresden
5 “Thatcher”
6 Spam fritters
7 Benny Hill
8 Comprehensive schools, epitomised by Grange Hill
9 Stonehenge, which, according to one contributor, began the foolish British fascination with follies

I suppose the question is, what would any of us consider to be the top ten worst errors in British history. Or the top ten greatest achievements for that matter?

Comments

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

I can't argue with Thatcher as one of the ten, nor indeed Chamberlain, although 3 was England's failure rather than Britain's. Indeed for Scotland it could arguably be seen as a triumph as it ushered in the Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson era of England failure (1990 excluded). To add eight more failures to Thatcher and Chamberlain I would suggest (in no particular order):

*Colonizing Ireland
*Bird's custard
*The Charge of the Light Brigade
*Chavs
*The complete lack of activity by the people in 1848
*The massacres of indigenous people and the lack of development engendered by the Empire
*UK Garage
*Suez and the resulting subordinate role to the USA (probably the biggest failure of all)

As for the ten greatest achievements (also in no order):

*Involvement in the defeat of fascism
*Allowing Marx and Engels the opportunity to write
*Decolonization
*Penicillin
*The development of football as a sport
*Fish suppers
*The NHS
*A fine tradition of self deprecating humour
*Prog rock
*Flush toilets