Person/people you like or respect from Britain

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

The title of this thread is somewhat wrong-minded: never confuse the individual with the sovereign.

Take each individual on the basis of his or her merits and nothing else; and never hold them accountable for the actions of their government by extension (only by complicity).

[ziggysego]

The title of this thread is somewhat wrong-minded: never confuse the individual with the sovereign.

Take each individual on the basis of his or her merits and nothing else; and never hold them accountable for the actions of their government by extension (only by complicity).

Unless they're English

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Unless they're English

Racist!






The OP might have entitled the thread: 'Great (as in truly great, not just from a bigger island) Britons you admire' (that would be Britons of the real variety from Britain, not the plastic variety we're liable to run into around these parts)!

[mylestheslasher]

You admire a lot of people there Eamonn! But Tony Blair? A man who led an illegal invasion of a country resulting in 1000's of deaths for oil. I'm afraid he cant trade that bad for the good he did in the north. Its like saying you admire Sadam for putting nice roads in Iraq but not the gasing of the kurds.

Iraq has been the biggest foreign policy blunder in living memory, but I have to give Blair credit where it's due for his work in the north.

And you wouldn't really equate him with Saddam Hussein now, would you?

The only reason you wouldn't equate the two is because sadams crimes have been splashed on every paper while you have to go looking for details on bush and blairs carpet bombing. Who wins on body count I don't know. Sadam murders for power and Blair murdered for oil.

[crossfire]

Inventors, engineers and scientists:

Frank Whittle (jet engine inventor)
John Loggie Baird (TV inventor)
Isaac Newton (gravity inventor)Charles Darwin (evolution inventor)
Richard Dawkins (atheism inventor)

Broadcasters and writers:

David Frost (now at Al Jazeera)
David Dimbleby
Jeremy Paxman
Kirsty Wark (her accent makes me melt)
Christopher Hitchens

Athletes:

Steve Redgrave
Jack Charlton
Chris Hoy
Graham Obree (innovative rider who broke the hour record despite officialdom's attempts to block him, turned down a professional road racing contract because he didn't want to have to get into doping)
Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram in the 80s
I'd like to be able to add Mark Cavendish but he's Manx

Politicians:

Alex Salmond
Tony Blair (for his work in Northern Ireland, not Iraq)
Tony Benn (I don't agree with him on everything but he makes his case well and is always interesting to listen to)
Denis Skinner (gas man in the House of Commons)

I thought gravity was always around.

[Mayo4Sam]

Obree is a legend alright

Someone mentioned top gear, saw James blunt on it, came across as dead sound, aparently he wasn't hiding behind his celebrity status in Iraq either, have liked him since.

Just two out of tonnes you could list

[Tony Baloney]

You could fill pages with the lists of inventors, engineers and scientists. Thon hoor that invented gravity has probably had the biggest impact though as I wouldn't fancy wearing lead boots all day.

[laoislad]

You could fill pages with the lists of inventors, engineers and scientists. Thon hoor that invented gravity has probably had the biggest impact though as I wouldn't fancy wearing lead boots all day.

Sure once you had a bit of lead in your pencil you'd be alright.