Reply to: Official thread for the biggest historical mistakes of Britain

[Peoplesoft bloke]

the biggest mistake BY FAR has got to be putting all the work done for Enigma under the official secrets act.

most of the enigma folks left for the USA , worked for IBM and other U.S. tech companies and the rest is history. (hello silicon valley...)

Indeed - and wasn't it that "great" leader Winston Churchill who ordered all the equipment to be smashed up and records destroyed?

[rephlex]

the biggest mistake BY FAR has got to be putting all the work done for Enigma under the official secrets act.

most of the enigma folks left for the USA , worked for IBM and other U.S. tech companies and the rest is history. (hello silicon valley...)

[blacjac]

I'm afraid you are wrong. Our greatest mistake was not to make Satanic ritual compulsory in school.

Nicky G returning to CUK

[Peoplesoft bloke]

The biggest historical mistake of recent times was for the Tories to eject Maggie.
The next biggest mistake was for the electorate to vote for Labour and Tony Blair which history is now showing is ruining our country with massive debt and a catalogue of other failures such as uncontrolled immigration.

Maggie was becoming an electoral liability and the Tories have always been primarily a party about doing and saying anything to retain power. Maggie wouldn't have won the 1992 election, so the Tories did the right thing (for them if not for the nation) by ditching her in 1990.

I'd have liked to see her try coming back in 1997 and explain how all the tax rises and the massive deficit (yes, the Tories handed a deficit over to Tony) were the products of fabulous Tory economic management.

[BrianSnail]

Scraping it against what?

Charles de Gaulle airport.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Scraping Concorde

Scraping it against what?

[PM-Junkie]

Teaching foreigners to play football, cricket and rugby.

...and then picking them to play for England

[Mich the Tester]

Teaching foreigners to play football, cricket and rugby.

[PM-Junkie]

Thinking Steve McClaren was competant enough to run the England football team.

WWII pales into insignificance in comparisson...

[Nicky G]

After having some unbiased objectives thoughts I think the biggest mistake Britain made was to resist the French.

Just think of the advantages - the language would sound great even when talking about mundane things, cheap wine, cheese, industry would have stayed in tact and I think WW1 and WW2 simply would not have happened.

I'm afraid you are wrong. Our greatest mistake was not to make Satanic ritual compulsory in school.

[Bagpuss]

The Dome?

Not one of the Tories best ideas

[Prometheus]

In my opinion it was to leave Poland to be occupied by the Soviet Union after the second world war - Churchill did not want this but was over-ruled by the USA.

[ace00]

harold's housecarl's chasing william the bastard's fleeing penultimate assult is probably the single biggest mistake. but having said that in the long run though the merging of norman and anglo saxon was a good thing.

i think the decision of the combined fleet to desist charging the dardanelles in march 1915 was dreadful error. the gallipoli campaign could have been finished off immediately and the whole course of the first war would have changed.

WHS

[Bob Dalek]

The Dome?

[DS23]

harold's housecarl's chasing william the bastard's fleeing penultimate assult is probably the single biggest mistake. but having said that in the long run though the merging of norman and anglo saxon was a good thing.

i think the decision of the combined fleet to desist charging the dardanelles in march 1915 was dreadful error. the gallipoli campaign could have been finished off immediately and the whole course of the first war would have changed.