[green1]

The British don't idealize Churchill, right-wing British and Americans do.

He was not even that popular in his finest hour, as head of a cross-party coalition wartime government, being kicked out of office by the British people before the war had even ended and never once won the popular vote in any general election.

Edit: Someone obviously doesn't like easily verifiable facts.

[orf]

He’s an incredibly popular icon and often tops any historic figure polls in the UK. Election results after the second world war don’t really mean much to his legacy. He also had (so far) the last state funeral in the UK, lasting for 4 days, something that is usually reserved for royalty.

His witticisms are often fondly repeated, and some of his most famous portions of his speeches are known to everyone in England. You also find some of his most famous pictures (cigar-toting v for victory) in a lot of places.

That’s not to say people adore him or would dislike you for talking poorly of him, but it’s a much wider segment of the population than you suggest.

It’s an interesting problem though. People are aware of his racism and more controversial actions, but the feeling is that it doesn’t really matter. For leading our country through a fight for its very survival, he gets a free pass, because who is to say that we’d be around to discuss winning WW2 if another man was in charge.

[arethuza]

He did win the 1951 general election:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_United_Kingdom_general_el...

[green1]

Yes, without winning the popular vote. From your link:

     Churchill: 13,717,851
        Attlee: 13,948,385

[arethuza]

That doesn't really count for anything in our election system.

[green1]

The point was about Churchill's popularity in Britain (real vs myth), not the British electoral system.