====== Winston Churchill ======

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''Mr Churchill's response to losing the 1945 election''

British politician best known for being [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] during most of the Second World War. A great orator and wit, Churchill's leadership during the war led to him recently being voted greatest Briton of all time, although sometimes he is rather more popular in the [[USA]]; being half-American doubtless helps.

He was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and died while listening to the Beatles (figuratively speaking). He is possibly the only MP of modern times to cross the floor twice, from Tory to Liberal and then back again. A scion of the line of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough who won the Battle of Blenheim during the War of the Spanish Succession, Churchill was the first of his line to achieve greatness again after a long line of nonentities (though [[timelines:Fight and Be Right#some say]] his father Lord Randolph Churchill was simply unlucky). Strongly conservative and reactionary in his politics, Churchill was insistent that the British Empire should retain India at all costs, and used the army to subdue strikers (though that incident has been somewhat exaggerated). He nonetheless accepted the socialist post-war consensus after becoming PM again the 1950s.

For obvious reasons, Churchill is a favourite target of Second World War PODs, particularly a case where he was nearly killed in a taxi crash in New York in the 1930s.   

==== See Also ====

**[[pods:Winston Churchill|Winston Churchill Points of Divergence]]**