No, not a crap cd compilation – this is apparently a survey conducted by BBC History Magazine of the very worst that Britain has chucked up over the centuries.
Well, I cannot believe it.The worst 10 Britons – ever has failed to include any of my favourites. No Tony Blair, no Peter Hain…. And rather incredulously, no Five-bums Johnny Prescott.
Heading the list is Jack the Ripper, closely followed by Thomas Becket. Then comes a couple of people, so bad that I’ve never heard of them - Eadric Streona and Sir Richard Rich, Lord Rich of Leighs……. Didn’t MacCauley Culkin play Ritchie Rich in a movie – was he that bad? Another bad-un is apparently Hugh Despenser (the younger) – well, I bet ‘the older’, ‘the wiser’ and ‘the incontinent’ are relieved about that….
Anyway, the full top ten goes as follows - 1. Jack the Ripper, 2. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3. Eadric Streona, 4. King John, 5. Sir Richard Rich, Lord Rich of Leighs, 6. Titus Oates, 7. Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 8. Thomas Arundel, 9. Hugh Despenser (The Younger), and 10. Oswald Mosley.
Maybe you have to be dead to qualify….. Prescott, mate, it can be arranged. All those who would like to rub out ‘Five-bums’ form an orderly and very, very long queue…..
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3 comments:
The 'poll' was a farce. The magazine chose 10 people - one per century - and that was the choice.
Bit like a Soviet election, where you could choose betwen several different communist candidates.
Or even like an English election where you get to choose between several Scottish candidates.
A complete farce. Several of the people on that list were heroes - eg Becket who stood up for the power of the church against the power of the monarch. King John is also a much maligned character -he was actually a much better king than his brother Richard I who was off on the crusades most of the time and bankrupted the Treasury as a result.
Where on that list is Aleister Crowley, who actually took delight in evil? Was he omitted from the list on the grounds that his inclusion would amount to religious discrimination against satanists?
One further point: what evidence have they got that Jack the Ripper was actually a Briton. Several authoritative sources suggest he could in fact have been either Polish or Russian.
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