The BBC has announced the results of a public opinion poll on the 100 Greatest Britons of all time.
The results strongly suggest that drug abuse in the U.K. has gotten out of hand.
Passing over the question of whether so many pop stars should have made the list, what sort of mass stupidity enshrines Johnny Rotten and Cliff Richard, but leaves off Pete Townshend and Mick Jagger? Are you people daft? And what sort of reasoning places three of the Beatles on the list, but omits Ringo?
As for more consequential matters, is there some compelling reason to place the Queen Mother on the list of greatest Britons, apart from a mass delusion that lime-green coordinated outfits are a sign of greatness?
The list includes Boy George and David Beckham, but leaves out Christopher Marlowe, W.R. and John Webster? Tony “Oi’ve dumped me peerage” Benn and Enoch “Rivers of Blood” Powell are in, but Anthony Trollope and Agatha christie are out?
And they included Robbie Williams and left out Roger Waters?
We get Bono but not Oscar Wilde ??? - can we trade ?
do we know who/what/where/when the poll was done. Is it supposed to be representative of the entire population or was it arranged courtesy of Rent-a-Retard inc. (make that ‘retarded’ if offeneded. Sorry) ?
Wasn’t this same sort of poll done just a couple years ago? By the Times, was it?
Then it was a runoff between Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Newton, and John Lennon (I remember vaguely). All four made substantial changes to Britain and to the world.
Fan that I am, the Beatles just do not weigh in that heavily.
As for putting Freddie Mercury, Charlie Chaplin, and Julie Andrews on the list … doesn’t that repudiate the validity of the poll? I wouldn’t even know who Freddie Mercury was, if my sister hadn’t been a fan.
I have faith that Freddie Mercury would still have been named.
But Cliff Richard would definitely have been replaced by another of civilization’s icons.
Like Chubby Checker.
Britney Spears? It wouldn’t surprise me (and that’s not a slur against America, but a cynical belief that most people asked on the spot think of who’s familiar).