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Now you are just being silly... ;)

Hmmm... we will have to get rid of The Guardian too, that was founded by a cotton merchant who obtained his material from slave picked cotton from the USA...

Entirely sensible. Plus, and this is a logical extension to the argument, restitution is due to the descendants of the 1.2 million Europeans taken into slavery by Africans...or the c.17 million Africans and Europeans taken into slavery by the Arabs... Perhaps there could be some sort of round...

Is it Harry Potter?

Yes! The real figure was more like 25,000 I believe. The higher figure was also quoted by David Irving based on falsified documents. Now he really is a complete racist!

Yes, Dresden is an interesting one. Of course, it is important to put it into context. The RAF and USAF raided it in mid February 1945 at the request of the Russians. At that time the Battle of the Bulge was just petering out, the Rhine had not been crossed at any point and there was still...

To be fair to the three people you mention, there were perfectly humane and legitimate reasons for some of the actions you cite. Cromwell was a particularly unlikable character, but the noted sacks of Drogheda and Wexford had perfectly sound military reasons. And, in fact, were intended to save...

To be fair, almost everyone hated de Gaulle!

I think it was more the case that Churchill hated de Gaulle... He was very much a francophile, you may remember that in 1940 he proposed a union between Britain and France that would result in the counties becoming a single entity, with a joint government. British citizens would be granted...

It made me chuckle!! Yes, totally agree. Churchill is probably the best example of this. He rose to the occasion in May 1940 but actually his wartime leadership was pretty mixed (at best), Gallipoli was a disaster and his tenure as Home Secretary was most controversial. Greatest Briton? No...

To be fair, Edward IV died in 1470 so can perhaps be absolved of blame on that one... ;-) But on a serious note, if you look into the past of many figures you can generally find something disreputable about them. Gandhi had some pretty racist views about black people Several suffragettes...

And let's not forget that we are by no means the only country to have benefitted from the evils of slavery. Lest we forget that 1.2 million Europeans were enslaved by African slavers? Or the 17 million slaves taken by Arabs? It is quite astonishing to learn that one west African republic only...

Strictly speaking he was found 'not guilty'. This is not the same as being found innocent- there is a subtle, but important distinction.

Although originally from London, Howard was a pre-war police officer in Oxford, and maintained his association with the City all his life.

Really? Worse than Lord North!?!

To some extent this whole debate hinges on the definition of ‘best’. What is ‘best’ for one person, profession or community is not necessarily ‘best’ for all. I’d like to think that- whatever your political allegiance- it is possible to look back objectively at the records of all our PMs. I’ve...

Lord North- surely!

I think Macmillan should probably be in the top 3, ahead of Wilson. Atlee definitely gets top spot- not least for his government's single-handed development of the UK's nuclear deterrent in spite of the US's high handed refusal to share the technology. Douglas-Hume in the bottom 5? Bit of a...

Brilliant. You are definitely the first person to ever make that joke.

Wow... that clearly went completely over your head!!