The untold history of Winston Churchill and the British Empire | Tariq Ali | The Big Picture S4E9 

Churchill was a privileged member of the ruling class. He was no friend of the ordinary working man and his life and actions need seeing in context. As a working class Brit, I dislike him immensely.

Both my grandfathers fought in WW2 and they both hated Churchill and the whole officer class.. they voted him out as soon as they could after the war

"Rishi Sunak, a second rate banker" and Prime Minister of England. Great insight.

Time alters many things. Tariq is a national and international treasure these days. He wasn't always thought of in such terms in his youth, but he stuck to reason in his arguments and has been proven to be correct. His comment on Braverman was spot on.

I was educated in England during the 1960's. My history teacher was a gem - he showed us that Churchill was an entitled drunk who loved to tell stories, especially about himself! British empire? ended not soon enough for the native citizens. I am an English woman living in Ireland - and I am blessed to be welcomed here.

This history is only untold in England and Hollywood, everyone else knows what Churchill was....😔

All my relatives of Grandparent age hated Churchill.

“History would be a wonderful thing, if only it was true”. Tolstoy!! NZ.

“I think a curse should rest on me - because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment - and yet - I can’t help it - I enjoy every second of it.”- Winston Churchill letter to a friend Re 1914-19 For this alone he should be condemned

Ireland was Britain's first colony. It took 700 years to get freedom for most but not all of Ireland. Partition seems to be an established British tactic in causing problems for newly independent countries from the empire.

“Mr. Spielberg loves your script ! But only one condition : make all the good guys Jews and not Muslims.”

I could listen to this man talk about anything. What a voice

Divide and rule is the way the British ruled in all colonial countries they ruled. The division of Cyprus is another example. The British still have sovereign bases in Cyprus. It is one of the colonial countries that the British still have a foothold today.

Listening to Tariq Ali is a breath of fresh and vital air. I attended a talk by Mr. Ali in Toronto years ago; he is as vital to our education now as then. Thank you for this great interview.

Your interview with Tariq Ali was a gem. As an American I was fascinated by his opinions on the U.S. hegemony and I totally agree, after listening to that raving sociopath Victoria Nuland on a U.S. Sunday chat show advocating targeting sites inside Russia with U.S. weapons, I agree with Tariq Ali that my country would go so far as to destroy the world to maintain hegemony over it.

Churchill said "History will be kind to me, I will write it myself." And he did.

When the Australian army was coming home to defend us from the Japanese, Churchill diverted our troop ships to defend Borneo instead, leaving Australia totally undefended. He said “I think Australia may have to be mauled a little…”

True history no matter how ugly will set your mind free. Thank you for this discussion.

I kind of knew the European empires, and now the US Empire, had done bad things. October 7th was the catalyst that plunged me into the mind shattering cold waters of a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole I still haven't crawled out of. The extent of the suffering caused by the European Continent makes you want to sit down and take a beat. I can't believe I didn't know ANY of this. I feel like I've been sleepwalking for the past 30 years... And in the words of Norman Finkelstein: "I am not Pro-Palestine and I am not anti-israel. I am PRO-Truth, and I am PRO-Justice!" Thank you for this interview. We all need to be more exposed to this kind of content 🙏.

While the British people were restricted to eating rationed food, Churchill was dining on five course meals, drinking fine wine and smoking expensive cigars.

I can’t believe that in the 70’s we in the West ate, sex, celebrated full chat while the Palestinian people suffered and are still suffering… We in the West are going to pay…. No, no, no, no doubt….!!!!!!!

Read "Churchill's War" and "Hitler's War" by David Irving

79 yo remembering my fathers teachings growing up in the welsh coalfields...you sir have verified this...which joins up with my own living history now can recognise again from my father.. He who wins writes the history!!!

So informative, thank you!

We hardly talk about the Indian Bengal Holocaust committed by the British. Commonly known as the Bengal Famine. 3 Million or more Indians killed. We have barely scratched the surface of what happened and it's not even covered as much as Jallianwalla Bagh or Amritsar.

The book "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree" would have been made a movie if Ali accepted to change 90 % of the characters to Jews 🤔🤔🤔 And when you talk about HOLYWOOD manipulation of the masses, they say you are paranoid.

“Where you stand depends on where you sit.” - Nelson Mandela

Palestine is an area of ​​more than 27 thousand square kilometers and is on the borders of Egypt and Jordan, which historically is part of Palestine and the people of Jordan, more than 70 percent of whom are of Palestinian origin, but Britain made them a state and brought agents to the Jordanian ruling dynasty in order to rule Jordan and protect the occupation from the Jordanian-Palestinian people Palestine Its capital, Jerusalem, is the land of the Palestinian people for tens of thousands of years. It is the cradle of Christianity and Judaism, and it is the third holiest place for us Muslims. It is a land where most of God’s prophets lived, were born, and died. It is the holy and blessed land and the land of the Palestinian and Arab people. Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived there for thousands of years as neighbors and brothers before the Zionists occupied our land. Britain brought them in the Balfour Declaration to occupy our land. Those who committed the Holocaust against the Jews were the Germans and the West, not me.

Tarik ali is great as always

Just ordered Tariq Ali's book on Churchill. Looking foward to reading it.

Churchill was a hero for the British and a Monster to everyone else.

Wonderful interview and contribution by Tarik. What a gift he is to the intellectual world with his critical analysis and great communication skills. More of him please in the future. Great work from you both.

We need many like you in this crazy, sick world. Amen!

Spot on. However, I don't think the US will be able to project militarily like it did. There are cheap asymmetric technologies that could make this impossible

Always a pleasure listen to Tariq. He is very well informed . Thank you

Makes you rethink WW1 and WW2 we were the baddies, the allies have set in motion the shit my generation is dealing with today all started after WW2.

A vivid memory of my young childhood is seeing, holding and hearing my parents play a memorial set of 2 heavy LPs of Churchill's funeral. Only black and white photos. Long, ceremonial black capes. That bulldog face. That odd, odd voice. That fat cigar. Yet even at 4, I couldn't fall into learned admiration. The whole aura and persona seemed as without meaning as having to stand up in a cinema and silently watch The Queen ride her horse side saddle across the screen before they'd show the film. Thank you, Tariq, for a much more pertinent hour's listening.

For everyone who thinks he was such s great hero. Here you go.

Magnificent interview, briliant intelect, both interviewer and interviewie! Tariq Ali should became world famous. I will endevour to research his work and read his books. During the debacle at the Darnnells during WWI, Churchill was Lord of the Admiralty, position which he coveted intensely but performed so poorly he was demoted and spent many years during which his carreer was in the doldrums until WWII begun and he was given the Premiership of Britain, for lack of interest in the position, by all other possible candidates. Nobody wanted it, and thus someone in power suggested: "Give it to Winston", ressurrecting his career. By then, he was a heavy drinker, and by the end of the war, he was an alcoholic!!

thank you so much to you and to your guest. It was an hour that runs so fast; so much light shed on here. I dont know who will be your next guest but please, keep going.

In the 2nd ww there was a polish officer (intelligence) rotmistrz Pilecki that voluntarily let himsels been arrested to be send to Auschwitz to gather information about how german treated Polish and other prisoners incl Jews there (from the beginning of existance of the camp till when german in 1942 decided to finnaly solve Jewish question overwhelmingly Polish were imprisoned there). After the war when Poland was under soviets occupation with Jewish police, in-juistice and political system he returned after fighting with british in Italy (he escaped from Auschwitz after one year) and was arrested, tortured and executed by the Jews-comunists that had a power than there. When his daybooks appeared in Poland a delegation of Hollywood filmmakers visited his family and proposed to film his story changing his ethnicity to Jewish. The family rejected. Till tiday no polish filmmaker have a courage to film his live.

Great discussion

The following quote nails it down with regard to the recent war-mongering stance of Western imperialism against people without power and the barbaric, genocidal cultural hegemony that's justifying it: "Allowances can be made for Mr. Churchill's statement, however unworthy, in the first flush of his victory. No such excuse could be found for me in this quieter atmosphere. There are, however some things which it is my duty to say, some things which it is essential to say. I shall try to say them as dispassionately as I can. Mr. Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain's necessity. It seems strange to me that Mr. Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean Britain's necessity would become a moral code and that when this necessity became sufficiently great, other people's rights were not to count. It is quite true that other great Powers believe in this same code-in their own regard-and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous succession of wars-World War No. 1 and World War No. 2-and shall it be World War No. 3? Surely Mr. Churchill must see that if his contention be admitted in our regard, a like justification can be framed for similar acts of aggression elsewhere and no small nation adjoining a great Power could ever hope to be permitted to go it own way in peace." (Eamon de Valera's response to victory-drunk imperialist Churchill, May 1945)

It is good this Pakistani man is allowed to criticise the West, while living in the West. However, he would never be allowed to criticise the Ottoman empire, while living in Turkey. The Ottoman Turks murdered a million Armenians in 1915. The Turk's starved a million Lebanese in 1918. Criticising Turkey's past carries the penalty of insulting Turkishness.

Thrilled to have found this podcast and the interview with Tariq Ali. Concise truth and observations. If only we could send him on a world tour! 🎉

Churchills mother was jewish, and his dead father owed money to the jews. Noone is asking where he could have gotten the money to have a large estate with gardeners, servents etc, on his ordinary politicians salery. England, France and America! Who is ruling?

Mind you, Gandhi was also deeply racists…by todays standards, most people were.

Tariq Ali. One of my political and intellectual heroes. Never dull and always different

Humbled to be able to listen to such a great human being and brilliant mind. I adored the quintet, every single word of them. Now reading with great pleasure Churchill’s bio. Thank you

Churchill hated the Russians vicariously. At the time he probably believed that Russia was an irreducible enemy of English imperialism. Perhaps he imagined that England had a mission to conquer the inferior, barbarian, uncivilized, communist Slavs who had overthrown the Tsar's monarchy and defeated the White Army and its allies during the civil war. But the truth is that, viewed from a distance, Churchill had a deep reason to hate Russian culture and literature. “… I also remember that, in my article, I developed the idea that all… say, for example, the legislators and founders of humanity, starting with the oldest and continuing with Lycurgus, Solon, Muhammad, Napoleon, etc. etc., everyone, from the first to the last, had been criminals, if only because, when promulgating new laws, they abolished the old ones, considered sacred by society and ancestors, and certainly would not have stopped before the blood , whenever this (sometimes poured out with all innocence and virtue, in defense of the old laws) could be useful to them. It is also significant that most of these benefactors and founders of humanity were bloodthirsty, especially ferocious. In short: I concluded from this that all individuals, not only the great ones, but also those who moved a little away from vulgarity, that is, also those who are capable of saying something new, would have the obligation, by their very nature , of being infallibly criminal… to a greater or lesser extent, naturally. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to get out of vulgarity, and they cannot conform to staying there, even for the same reason as their nature and, in my opinion, they even have an obligation not to conform. In short: as you can see, so far, this is nothing particularly new. This has already been printed and read thousands of times. As regards my distinction between ordinary and extraordinary men, I agree that it is somewhat arbitrary; but I didn't quote exact numbers. I only have faith in my essential idea, which is that which consists in saying concretely that individuals are divided, according to the law of nature, into two categories: the inferior (that of the vulgar), that is, if I may say so, the material, which is only useful for the procreation of the species, and that of individuals who have the gift or intelligence to say a new word among themselves. …” (CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Fyodor Dostoevsky, p. 281 Winston Churchill was an embodiment of the criminal statesman who historically and politically manufactures his own impunity as described and honored by Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. He must have seen himself portrayed in the book, didn't like what he saw and buried it deep in his unconscious mind. This wound expressed itself consciously through the contempt and hatred that Churchill felt towards Russia.

Thank you so much for this. I haven't seen Tareq Ali for a long time, and I"ve missed him.

As a Brit, this bloke has benefitted considerably from what he considers to be his country's wrong doings. He also seems to spend a lot of his time in a country he despises and continues to benefit from his country's tolerance of his views. Perhaps he should consider donating a substantial part of his personal fortune to the peoples that his country, in his view, has exploited!

He is hated in parts of Scotland particularly Dundee.

Please Piers Morgan ....have a real Uncensored show with Tari Ali on ! A lot of clicks await

Wow, Ali's voice makes me melt. Such a pleasure to listen to this man.And the insight as well, obv.

This should be essential viewing in order to try and change and educate our population as to our true crimes and history.

It's always divide and rule, It's been going on for decades.

Great to watch, thanks

Thank you. Good to see Tariq Ali. Always interesting and a learning experience.

A person who really knows History, can usually tell you something about the future. Case in point here. 👍🏼

At last the truth is out !! Destroy the myth !!

One Irony of Churchill is tge he’s celebrated as saving Britain When in fact he helped reck it ! Especially for cheering Britain into 1914

A wonderfully enlightening interview.Much respect to you both.Thank you.🙏

Also read British historian David Irving’s heavily documented, 3-volume biography of Winston Churchill for the unvarnished truth about the “real” Winston Churchill. It’s nothing like the version we were taught in school and the many best-selling, hagiographies which have been written about him. 🧨

Thank you Tariq for revealing the other side of this imperialist, stubborn, bully Churchill. I suppose that part of his character was what made him determined to beat the Nazis. So these characteristics came in useful for Britain in his later life.

Different perspective. Worth listening to. Who amongst us agree with 100% of anyone’s comments. Spot on about Churchill.

Thank you for this interview. Always a delight to hear Tarik offer his insights and we don't often get to hear and see him.

Thanks. I like when you make videos instead of tl;dr posts...

Great interview!

Amazing interview 👏

What worries me is that an evil world ignores somebody like Tariq Ali will anyone ever listen to me? It's like fighting in a vacuum. Dometimes but we just plug on.

Churchill believed in white supramacy

Brilliant please interview him again about the current Gaza genocide!

Loved it! Very insightful!

Great interview

Churchill's war narrative still has a heavy imprint on the way many people see WW2, its origins and its history (also because it fed into the Hollywood narratives of the war). He still has that privilege to a much larger degree than let's say general de Gaulle, who also wrote some very interesting war memoirs and who was a formative political figure into the 1960s. The myth that almost nobody in British politics but Churchill and his friends really saw the threat of Hitler is very much part of his own narrative: he didn't want to recognize that people within the Labour party had also been warning against the Nazis, or that the French socialist government in 1936-37 had also tried to mobilize Europe against Berlin. Churchill must have understood, around the end of WW2, that even though Hitler had been defeated. the war had also dealt a mortal blow to the British Empire itself. Both Roosevelt and Stalin had told him during the conferences of the war (Tehran, for example) that they were not sending millions of their own young men into the fight to hand back the empire to Britain on a silver platter. Once the war is over, they told him, you Brits will have to start dismantling your own empire. And he knew that the Japanese had also shown to people all over Asia that the whites where by no means unbeatable. He needed the support of both the US and the Soviet Union, so he had to accept the "orders" to prepare for giving up on much of the empire. As he was voted out in 1945, he didn't have to do the job personally, but the liberation of India was a pretty much inevitable step, and without the possession of British India, much of the rest of the empire was rather pointless and would not carry its own costs in a meaningful way. Churchill knew that the war had finished the British Empire in its classic sense, but he didn't want that to be part of the story of the war, so he kept this out of his own history/war memoirs (first volume in 1948). Of course his accounts of British diplomacy during the war were highly edited too and adapted to the story he wanted.

Truth is freedom

Brave AI w/Leo The Moors, who were African Muslim people from North Africa, made significant contributions to Europe's development in the areas of crops, irrigation systems, and agricultural techniques during their 700-year occupation of Spain. Some of the key contributions include: 1. New crops: The Moors introduced new crops such as rice, citrus fruits, and cotton to Europe, which helped to diversify the European diet and improve food security. 2. Irrigation systems: The Moors developed advanced irrigation systems, such as the qanat system, which allowed for the cultivation of crops in areas with limited rainfall. This technology was later adopted by European farmers and helped to increase crop yields. 3. Agricultural techniques: The Moors introduced new agricultural techniques, such as crop rotation and the use of fertilizers, which helped to improve soil fertility and increase crop yields. They also developed advanced methods of grape cultivation, which led to the development of high-quality wines in regions such as Rioja. These contributions helped to transform the agricultural landscape of Europe and played a significant role in the development of the continent's economy and culture.

Great interview! Thanks!

When will Constantinople be returned?......or as usual does this only ever go one way?

Divide and Conquer is the policy of today’s American Hegemony 😢😢 Same Sh!7 different day 😢

Thank you.

Great interview. Thank you.

Churchill was a great racist. I own a Churchill book from early, early 1900's, 1904? And he is most definitely a racist. A lot of Brits get mad at me when I suggest that Churchill IS a racist. But, it is true.

The whole western alliance combined did very little work to defeat the Fascist. The largest impact was by the USSR. The Anglo-Saxons joined the Russians online because of the horrible fear of communism.

I just bought this book and it is brilliant. It's not just Churchill but an amazing historical perspective with Churchill in it. On of the best if not the best political history books I've ever read.

An excellent documentary, well balanced and such a relief to hear such a thoughtful reasoning mind. Until we hear the 'other' side of the story we will only ever know half the facts.

The British aren't British, they're Angles and Saxons, they're from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands etc. Real British, the "Ancient Britons" are Scotland, Ireland, Wales and ever since then the Angles and Saxons have been at war with the Ancient Britons, dragging them into its banking wars against other empires.

I am your sister from Yemen, and by Allah I only spoke out of hunger and distress. My mother, my brothers, and I lessons and tears. We are in a situation that only God knows about. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs for those who brought us to this situation. By Allah Almighty, I did not write this appeal out of distress and distress. Poverty, O world, they have felt it So, I hope for you. By Allah Almighty, Lord of the Great Throne, he ate what I had in the house. By Allah, my brothers, he is my brothers by sitting in the house. Who has no food? By God, we are in a very difficult situation. We have 4 people entering the house, and my father has died, and there is no one who can depend on us and who lives in it.We live in a rented house because we cannot pay the rent we owe. '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' My brother, my first words are: I swear to God that I will not lie to you or deceive you. I am a Yemeni girl displaced from the war. My family and I live in a rented house in Al-Shahrab 20,000 Yemenis among us, and now we owe 60,000 for 3 months. The owner of the house is one of the people who does not have mercy, by God, my brother. He comes every day, insulting us, talking about us, and moving from the house to the street because we were unable to pay him the rent. The neighbors saw us crying and came back.They came back to talk to the neighbors and we were given the weekend. So we made him swear by God. He will take us out into the street. Have mercy on him and us. Our country is due to this war and we do not find food for our day, and my brothers and I live in a difficult life. Our father died, may God have mercy on him, and we have no one in this world who was with us in these harsh circumstances. My younger brothers went out into the street and saw...The neighbors eat and stand at their door in order to give them bread even if they break it. By God, to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, they closed the door and expelled them and came back crying. They are dying of hunger. No one has mercy on them and a holiday is returned. I have made a living, and now if one of us helps us with a kilo of flour, I swear to God, I am dying of hunger. My brother, I am an alien to God. Then, I ask you to help me for the sake of God. I ask you, by God, to love goodness and to help me, even if you can, by messaging me on WhatsApp.On this number 00967716649494 and ask for the name of my card and send it and do not be late and may God reward you with all the best, my brothers Sagar, see how they are and help us and save us before they throw us out in the street, you will be lost or we will die of hunger. My family and I ask you, by God, if you are able to help us, do not be late and may God reward you well..`/--~«««~-♡~♡~♡~~•~•~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡♡♡~~~~: ~:~¡~¡~¡~;I.i.i.i.i.i. i.I.|-◖≤≤≤^^^[ا

Thank you Tarig Ali for your historical truths. It is also a pleasure just listening to your calm voice.

Thanks!

El Cid was a Moor and few people know this! The beautiful mingling and collaboration between the cultures of old Spain were a high point of our humanity.

Thank you for this report. I’ve been waiting for years for someone to report on Churchill’s racist policies. The division of Ireland. The famine in Bengal. And what will be the cause of WW3, the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland and almost a hundred years of brutal persecution.

Amazing thinker delightful interview.

I’ve watched this man since I was a teenager. He’s never, ever in half a century, ever had anything ever good to say about Britain. Apart from a good, safe and comfortable living off this country, what good has he done and why is he here?

Wow..its like Tariq was predicting what would happen in Gaza. Can you interview Norman Finkelstein next.

Thank you for this presentation which I stumbled across today.. Tariq Ali speaks his truth assuredly and reasonably which is a rarity these days

His book is on my list to read.

Tariq has to update his knowledge of China's tech prowess. They not only produce. 5 millimeter chips, they are building their own chipmaking equipment so as to stop relying on the Norway for these machines. China is probably the only country that is vertically and horizontally industrially integrated.

I'm an American and I have to admire Winston Churchill, I take the good the bad and the ugly...they are part of the same breed, tribe of people I belong too and to neglect or hate people's of my tribe is what's making western culture sick and weak...MAKE THE WESTERN WORLD GREAT AGAIN!!...we need to unite and stop the brother wars...we must become strong again.