Is Sir Winston Churchill a hero or villain?

Love him or loathe him, for decades Sir Winston Churchill has been widely heralded as the great leader who saved Britain from the Nazis.

But he has his critics and those who believe he was an aristocrat - who did as much harm as good - and the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has openly joined that group by describing the wartime Prime Minister as a "villian".

Sky's Becky Johnson reports.

[mjc]

Who else is here after the churchil statue got vandalised

[ijvo]

People forget that humans can be both good and bad at different times in their life.

[debarunbhattacharya]

From an Indian point of view he is the greatest villain of all time

[louvivier]

He was a british hero, not an indian, bengali, canadian, malaysian, etc. He defended britain but at the expense of many from around the world. The indian soldiers died in european and african soil for a war that wasn't theirs.The bengali starved because food was needed for the army. Many canadians who volunteered for the war would never see home again, and the malaysians suffered under the japanese because their protectors couldn't protect them. There are many other nations who paid a price but these are the people who paid most dearly.

[leem]

"If food is so scarce, why hasn’t Gandhi died yet" . that was his response to millions of people dying in India because of hunger.

[simosimpson]

Hero think how black lives wouldn't matter if the other fella would have won the war

[GhettoWisdom]

I’m a black man and people are telling me to respect this mans legacy, they’re telling me we should look up to a man who’s motto was to ‘Keep Britain white’ which would mean he hates me cos I was born with darker skin, a man who caused the Bengal genocide, a man who planted the seed to strip voting rights from black people in South Africa. I’m sorry but that doesn’t make sense to me. He may of won a war however he didn’t win that war for me in fact it quite possibly could of went a different way if it wasn’t for the Soviet Union.

[removearticle]

Hitler-he thought good for Germans.
Mussolini- thought good for Italian.
Stalin - thought good for russians
In the similar way MADARCHOD Churchil thought good for ENGLISHMEN.
("Madarchod" is a respectable word used for englishmen in India)
.
.
If Hitler; Mossolini and Stalin were Heroes then surely MADARCHOD Churchil also was a hero.

[byroncudworth]

On 9 June 2020 the UK parliament held a minute’s silence to honour an American career criminal.
Amongst many other crimes, during a robbery he held a gun against the stomach of a pregnant black women.
To put this in perspective:
The UK parliament have never held a minute’s silence for any UK service personnel killed in action.
They have never held a minute’s silence for a British serving soldier butchered on the streets of Woolwich
They have never held a minute’s silence for any UK Police Officer murdered on duty
They have never held a minute’s silence for the death of one of our Covid-19 heroes
They have never held a minute’s silence for a murdered victim of domestic abuse.

[road]

Churchill took the food that was grown in India and he took that to feed the British army while 3 million Indians starved to death. What he did in Africa and many other places, he’s a villain in my eyes.

[mayorip]

Tony Blair is still alive, is he a villain ?? If yes then put him on trial as a war criminal !!

[ricklee]

That woman had it right in saying - 'a bit of both'. What's so difficult bout that? Why does everything have to be black or white?
Show me one great leader of the past who was a Saint.

[charliecarter]

How can this even be debated? People are listening to bollocks over historical facts told by accomplished historians

[vijnanabandhu]

“We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the
towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops, and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation.”- Churchill on his 1897 Afghan campaign

[thingsicantfind]

So insulting!!!! He may have had some bad faults but he saved the very foundation of Britain from the greatest evil the world has ever seen

[Boohoo]

As an Indian(Bengali) I can say that he was a huge VILLAIN!!!

[maur]

Ask any Indian and they will say he was villan

[Nopenotatall]

Wait til they learn about the guy he helped defeat in ww2

[manawearblack]

He was a nasty, arrogant titan of a man who ruled with an iron fist. But when his country came calling, needing him to step up and be a hero, he did. And thank God that he did

[Martin-ccxn]

A hero of course, but also a man of his time, views on colonialism were very different back then. He was forced to make incredibly difficult decisions during his time as PM throughout ww2, he did not take us into war, but Britain needed a leader like Churchill if it was to survive it. There are many books on his life and war time tenure, I suggest every Britain should read about him, an incredible speaker, truly courageous, inventive, and yet a complex man. Opposite in every way to John McDonnell i might add!