1. Audience Vote http://bit.ly/d1qews
1.1. Before
1.1.1. For: 118
1.1.2. Against: 1167
1.1.3. Undecided: 422
1.2. After
1.2.1. For: 181
1.2.2. Against: 1194
1.2.3. Undecided: 34
2. Against the Motion
2.1. Andrew Roberts http://bit.ly/aShe8x
2.1.1. Churchill was not just an asset to the free world, he was a champion of it. Had it not been for Churchill there might not even have been a free world.
2.1.2. He championed the free world on five clear occasions: he mobilised the country at the outbreak of the Great War; in the 1930s he saw the threat of Nazi Germany; he articulated the British people's will to fight facism; he formulated the sucessful war strategy that drew the Germans down into Northern Africa; and he warned of the perils of Stalin and the Soviet Union.
2.1.3. Of course he made mistakes, but he was in the House of Commons from 1900 to 1964, and his mistakes were pimples on the mountains of his achievements.
2.2. Antony Beevor http://bit.ly/bjMFxs
2.2.1. Churchill's military strategy was 'peripheral' but that is how small islands best fight wars.
2.2.2. Churchill's criticised delay of D-Day in fact allowed Britain to amass the necessary military forces for the offensive and gave the American troops time to come into their own.
2.2.3. Central European countries were not sacrificed to inevitable Soviet occupation by Churchill, but by Roosevelt, who refused to back Churchill when he stressed the need to enforce the terms of the Yalta agreement and grant free elections for the Polish.
2.3. Richard Overy http://bit.ly/c5Ang2
2.3.1. Blaming Churchill for everything reflects a profound misunderstanding about the historical process. Wars are waged by committees, not individuals.
2.3.2. For all his waywardness, for all his strategic misjudgement...Churchill was able to take advice, unlike other powerful men of his time.
2.3.3. Churchill did have limitations, which he himself recognised, but he was driven by a world historical vision and liberty was at the core of that vision. He was a warrior for the liberal age.
3. For the motion
3.1. Pat Buchanan http://bit.ly/bZvkWF
3.1.1. Churchill led the West in its advance to barbarism by commanding the inhumane 'starvation blockade' in Germany, which remained in force four months after the Germans laid down their arms in 1919.
3.1.2. Churchill was responsible for the most monumental failures and catastrophes of both World Wars: the loss of troops at Galipoli in WW1, in Norway in WW2, the capitulation to America's demands after WW1 which severed ties with Japan, the 1945 'thunderclap' bombing of defenceless Dresden, and the appeasement of Stalin for four years while he took control of Eastern Europe.
3.1.3. When Churchill became prime minister, Britain was the first nation on earth, the ruler of the greatest empire since Rome. When he left, Britain was an island dependent on the United States.
3.2. Nigel Knight http://bit.ly/b9xqDg
3.2.1. Churchill's 1925 decision to reintroduce the Gold Standard weakened the economy (as economist John Maynard Keynes warned it would) and meant that Britain was more severely affected by the 1929 crash than it might have been.
3.2.2. Churchill constrained defence spending when it was most needed - while the hostile threats of Hitler, Mussolini and Japan were growing.
3.2.3. The military campaigns Churchill won were due to the leadership of commanders who stood up to Churchill's foolish orders. His war strategy was dispersionism, and the delays inherent in such a strategy cost many lives.
3.3. Norman Stone http://bit.ly/aVPkQ7
3.3.1. Churchill was first and foremost an imperialist. He was fighting independence in the Far East when he had his hands full in Europe. His was an outdated, foolhardy attitude.
3.3.2. The 'myth' of Churchill is dangerous. Britain's smug veneration of Churchill lulled the country into a complacency that actually prevented it from achieving much in the post-war years.
3.3.3. Why did Churchill order the excessive bombing of Germany? Britain would soon become allies with Germany after the war, but it bombed the country with an extraordinary sadism.