The greatest mistake in British history

UPDATE: David Aaronovitch's contribution

UPDATE: Oliver Kamm's contribution

UPDATE: Some of your contributions

This post started with Bobvis listing what he regards as the ten worst errors in US history. He finished by challenging Chris Dillow to name the ten worst British mistakes.

Despite being neither a politician or a Jew, Chris chose to argue with the question rather than answer it.

So I think we should answer it, don't you?

Comment Central has asked a variety of Times writers to propose a candidate for the greatest mistake in British history. In the comment thread underneath this post you are invited to join in - proposing your own candidates or endorsing someone elses.

And then we'll have a vote.

Here goes with the suggestions.

Graham Stewart:
Circular 10/65: When Tony Crosland, Secretary of State for education in 1965, requested local authorities to scrap grammar schools and institute one-size-fits-all comprehensives across the country. This meant having to pay for selective education.

Matthew Parris:
1) The First World War
2) The Boer War
3) The failure of the Irish Home Rule Bill

Mick Hume:
The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Never mind looking forward to being "subjects" of Charles III, we need never have had a Charles II and all the leftovers of the middle ages he brought with him.

Anjana Ahuja:
I agree to some extent with Jared Diamond that the worst mistake in the history of the human race, let alone Britain, was the replacement of hunter-gathering by agriculture, which fuelled rapid population growth, urbanisation and disease.

William Rees-Mogg:
The five worst mistakes of British kings
1. Harold rushing to the Battle of Hastings. He could have won if he had made William come to him.
2. Henry II sending the knights to murder Thomas a Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral
3. Charles I losing the civil war to Cromwell and being executed
4. George III losing America to Washington and
5. Edward VIII falling in love with Mrs Simpson

Libby Purves:
The Establishment of the Church of England - its entanglement with secular power and influence.
Although there has been much merit in Anglicanism, over too long a historical period the political/royal supremacy of the established church has created:
a) a sense of smug righteousness, and a lack of self-questioning, in the ruling classes
b) a feeling that dissent, moral exploration and indeed private mysticism were somehow 'unreliable' , foreign, subversive and disreputable.
Many of our failings - intellectual laziness, spiritual constipation and social snobbery in particular - can be related to this unholy teaming-up of secular power with the established church.   

Roy Hattersley:
Failing to have a revolution in 1848.

Camilla Cavendish:
Mrs Thatcher's signing of the Single European Act in 1986, which set off the steady slide towards federalism

Nigel Hawkes:
1. Executing the 1916 Easter Rising plotters in Ireland ranks among the stupidest.
2. The Red Flag Act (1890s) probably stopped the UK being a leader in car manufacture, as it had been in steam engines.
3. And the 1948 centralised structure of the NHS (the high watermark of Stalinist planning) has damaged health care delivery for 60 years. Astonishingly, many people still think this was a good idea.

Magnus Linklater:
Any historical mistake is judged from today’s political perspective and therefore carries with it the prejudices and opinion of today, which may not have been applicable then.
However, there are three great historical decisions that I think in retrospect were wrong.
1. Henry VIII’s decision to break with Rome over the powers of the King. This plunged Britain into a divisive religious conflict whose effect is still being felt today.
2. George III and the loss of the American colonies. In retrospect, what a tragic decision that was.
3. Undoubtedly you’d have to put up there the partition of India and Pakistan, which had a huge death toll and set up divisions that still have an impact.

Ben Macintyre:
Kabul, 1842. One of the worst mistakes in British history - certainly the worst tactical and military error – was the invasion of Afghanistan in 1839. The British marched in with the newest high technology (cannon), extreme optimism, and almost no understanding of the country we were invading. A ruler we did not approve of was replaced with a puppet we liked much more and all the top brass predicted a walk-over.

Three years later, the Afghan tribes were united in their hatred of the imperialists, the British were besieged and outnumbered, and then attempted to retreat across the Khyber pass in bitter cold with no guarantee of safe passage, under constant attack from the Afghans.  An estimated 16,000 people died in the retreat from Kabul of 1842; a lone survivor, Dr William Brydon, reached Jalalabad fort, bringing news of the worst disaster in British imperial history.

And me:
Appeasing Hitler in his early years and allowing him to believe that he could get away with expanding his power.

Now it's your turn

Comments

[david jones]

Any Act or action carried out by any government without the full, and fully informed, consent of the British people.

[Mike Eastoe]

Caving into the desires of the Americans over the joint French/ British invasion of the Suez Canal.

[Egor]

Sorry for intervening but being from the country which lost almost 27,000,000 people in WWII (which war could easily be avoided by stopping Hitler's military program at an early stage) I would agree with Mr Finkelstein.
Yet another dearest mistake was that GB did not properly help Russia (which, again, suffered most) during WWI or at least did not help the Whites during the Civil War.
Yes, eventually, the Civil War was our problem but if you had helped the world could be quite different...

[Tim Fellows]

Appeasing extremist Islam in (these) its early years and allowing it to believe that it can get away with expanding its power.

[Peter Metcalfe]

Constantine III deciding that as he had three legions, he could become Roman Emperor instead of ruling over the Britons. So he took his legions with him into Gaul, lost and that is how the Romans left Britain.

Caving in over Suez. If that hadn't happened, Nassir would have met reality far sooner and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank might still be in Arab Control.

[Peter Metcalfe]

The persecution of five of the Seven Bishops for their refusal to swear allegiance to William the III. The Church of England lost itself then.

[rigby]

Being 'bounced' into the EU and ALL its Federal ideas plus the Human rights act

[Marek]

1. The Yalta conference.
2. The Treaty of Versailles.
3. The recgnition of Israel by the UN without safeguards for resident arabs (UK on security council).

[Marek]

What I like about the Guardian blogs is that your comments appear instantly and are taken down later if unsuitable.

[David Gillies]

1) The loss of Britain's possessions in France
2) Letting Ted Heath within sniffing distance of the reins of power
3) Gordon Brown, ditto
4) Allowing the UK to become a safe haven for all manner of unsavoury Islamic fundamentalists
5) Operation Market Garden (if it had succeeded it would have been a triumph, but its failure extended the Western War by six months and let the Reds stomp all over Eastern Europe)

[A British Mistake]

1. I agree with Danny appeasing Hitler wasn't too clever.
2. Hiring loads of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries in the 5th century.
3. Paying MPs
4. Moving here from nice places like Normandy, Denmark, Norway, Ireland etc
5. Being railroaded into helping the destruction of Palestine.
6. Not translating the Bible into English sooner.
7. Waging a war of cultural genocide against the Irish.
8. Allowing the Unions to bring the country to it's knees.
9. Allowing Cromwell to start a military junta after having previously been such a good egg.
10. The mistakes we haven't made yet.

[Daveyboy]

Falling for Climate Change.
hahahahahahaaaaaaaa

[Victor]

1) Entering the First World War;
2) Imposing the terms of the Verseilles Treaty on defeated Germany after that War;
3) Entering the EEC/EU after the Second World War.

[Luke Magee]

After World War I ended the British Empire was fairly united and loyal to the Crown but also had many colonies, and Ireland, with growing nationalist movements. If at this time the British Government had created a mechanism for each colony to peacefully move towards homerule then I believe we would have become a huge federation of equal states united by the Crown in friendship. Image that, a British Federation of equals covering 1/4 of the globe. It would have changed the history of the planet.

[W D Toulman]

Several commentators have ckamed that the loss of the American Colonies was one of the worst mistakes in British history.
Was It? Consider an alternative history in which the colonists were molified, the War of Independance never took place, The United Dominions of America remained under the management of the Whitehall bureaucracy. I do not seriously belive that the USA would have grown into the Economic and industrial powerhouse that it did. The Culture of the Oxbridge alumni in Whitehall,s mandarinate would have, I belive , have stiffled the UDA.

Regards

WD Toulman
Walkington
East Yorkshire

[Simon W.]

Spam fritters (served on Wednesdays at my now long defunct Grammar School)

Stonehenge (began the British propensity for noble efforts that ultimately accomplish little and aren't as impressive as other nation's extravagant follies,i.e. the Pyramids etc.)

[Tim]

The Entente Cordiale, which needlessly dragged us into the First World War and probably led to it becoming such a long drawn out, muderous conflict. That then led indirectly to the Russian Revolution and Hitler. The final result was a bankrupt and exhausted Britain, the Cold War and now the EU!

[Tony Cunningham]

Failure to make Ireland & America part of the union, rather than just colonies. Military ones are innumerable, possibly due to the same mindset.

[jon livesey]

The biggest mistake is failing to teach history. Most of your invited comments are a good reflection on that, since they reflect the personal - and rather daft -prejudices of the proposers rather than anything rational.

All of them are pretty silly, but take just three. The Restoration: does Mr Hattersley seriously think that, for example, the French Terror was a better alternative? 1776? Does anyone seriously imagine that the US would not have become independent sooner or later anyway? No revolution in 1848? Have you asked a Hungarian, German, or Austrian how they feel about the benefits of that one. Noble bloodshed better than muddling through?

You know, if you ask dumb people a dumb question, you will get a lot of dumb answers. Especially if the dumb people you ask only imagine themselves to be British.

[Malcolm Parker]

The Labour Government spending the post war loans from the U.S. on nationalising coal, steel and railways. It stifled post war Britain for decades.

[robert williamson]

The aristocratic family squabbles that led to ww one and the consequent murder of millions of the brightest and the best young men of the so called civilized world

[Brummydoug]

World War Two; Britain wrecked it's Economy, lost it's Empire, and thousands of people for what ? To hand over Eastern Europe to a murderous Russian totalitarian dictator rather than a murderous German Totalitarian Dictator. Smart move guys.

[JL Ronish]

Suez

[David M]

1. Harold relying on manpower to win Hastings, not prepared defences or prepared ground.

2. Providing public service posts to members of the nobility (and now political favourites) once the general public was educated: corruption, of any sort, leads to decay.

3. That vile snake Gladstone: with his high vauling tomes about the good of other peoples - deliberately leaving Gordon to die in Khartoum - providing the impression that empire was a lost cause (manipulation of public opinion and discarding the facts - those who admire him, Bush and Howard (Blair?) follow his example. It took a later generation to fix the mess - particularly the ideological extreemism, dressed up as nationalism, in the Sudan. Threads of this era (mid-late 1800's) are part of the chord of what is happening in the Sudan today.

4. Bodyline bowling - deliberately injuring Australian cricketers. Appologise or I'll smack a pom.

5. The type of reform of the House of Lords - deliberately destroying its potential for political impartiallity. Better to require eight years military service, or a degree in constitutional law or history - thus they prove their competence.

6. Ignoring the provisions of the Bill of Rights (1689) - and not extending them to have disqualified men like Tony Blair.

7. Not agreeing to the Tsar's proposal to dismantle the Ottoman Empire - thus: condemming Balkan christians to years of brutal oppression; entering the Crimean War; having to dismantle the Ottoman Empire anyway in the First World War.

8. Signing the Entente Cordiale with France - whilst Germany was making martial noises: thus the involvement in the First World War (what was that about, by the way?), for none of the powers involved really stood to gain.

9. All signings of European Acts and treaties.

10. Churchill's agreeing to American demands for access to Commonwealth markets, the Commonwealth's combined gold reserves, and all of our technology (at least, what they want) in return for a so-called 'alliance' during the second world war and afterwards.

11. Abandoning the original idea of empire: that the world will be ruled by brown Englishmen, in return for the idea that Britons have right to rule all countries (most of you don't think that now, but the ramifications still linger).

[Nick Bott]

King Harold rushing to the Hastings to fight William's invasion force in 1066.

William's troops probably could not have faced a more drawn out war, although he was a very determined man.

The Norman conquest probably led to a more imperialistic history than would otherwise have been the case, causing internal UK and other antipathies.

[Brian Jean]

Following a disasterous colonial history of invading and murdering indigenous populations with "agreements" with the remaining population occasionally following, in the case of assuming ownership of Australia declared it to be "terra nullius" then proceeded to wipe out the aborigonal population leaving those remaining unrecognised in law and never apologising for it!

[Bob T]

Either not taking part at all, making early reasonable peace terms with Germany or (as someone suggested) even being defeated in WW1. Much immediate suffering would have been avoided, Nazism would not have arisen nor the Russian Revolution and the Cold War. Robert Graves accused Lloyd George of unnecessarily prolonging the war for two more years. France exacted economic revenge for 1870. With hindsight such fateful misjudgements. Would though the bristling rival Imperial powers have been able to avoid war later in the century?

[Robert Lore]

The greatest mistake is happening now and will come to fruition in the time of my children (who are still at school).

This mistake has been multiculturalism is sofar as it has allowed people from islamic backgrounds into the country and given their views an equal voice.

These people as we know will not integrate and are highly antagonistic to our concepts of freedom, liberty and tolerance.

We are standing as observers watching this whole sad affair unfold and are (still) doing nothing.

[Hermann Burchard]

May I have leave to change the subject slightly? Bismarck's biggest mistake was not to dismantle France in 1871, as he could have done easily, into traditional regions, Provence happily seceding, as would have Toulouse raped by Paris, Burgundy, Aquitaine, etc. This would have left revanchists like Raymond Poincaré impotent, whose poisonous hatred of Germany (exercised from 1902 until his death 1934) may be blamed for both WWI and WWII (more than your favorite bete noir, our Kaiser). I can agree with Matthew Parris: A greated mistake was England's entry into WWI.

[james morrell]

accepting that former members of the empire or commonwealth have right of abode in the united kingdom.
becoming part of the euro-state.
electing nu-labour for the past 10 years.
allowing mp's to regulate their expenses and allowances.

[james morrell]

i do believe they were promised safe passage.

[Chris]

Britain declaring war on National Socialist Germany in September 1939. What did we gain from it? An end to the Empire, decades of poverty, baby boomers, 'the sixties' and so on. We should have declared neutrality like Ireland, or support.

[Neil]

Munich: Hitler was militarily weaker than we thought, the Czech's were well armed and up for a fight, they were democratic (unlike Poland) and elements of the German high command were considering a coup if we had stood up to Hitler. Instead we sold the Czech's out with the well known consequences, not least that a large proportion of the Blitzkrieg in 1940 was made up of Czech manufactured tanks...

[Cromwell]

Didnt like that bit about Charles 1 and anyway it was a fair fight and he started it.

[Mark Heenan]

I would say the Entente Cordial strikes me as having been a mistake. If we had allied with Germany instead (as we had previously) there would have been no WW1, on the basis of the Churchillian mantra that you will only get a war if both sides think they have a chance of winning

Giving in to Clemenceau over Germany having to pay crippling levels of reparations

Chamberlain going to meet Hitler in 1938 (although to be fair, he wasn't to know the German army were plotting to overthrow Hitler)

The 1965 defence spending review, which removed any chance we had of an armed forces able to act independently of the USA

On a light-hearted note, not putting De Gaulle up against a wall and shooting him when we had the chance...

[brad coons]

One of the very worst was the Boer war which caused many, many people around the world to begin to seriously detest Imperial Britain. It did, however, give rise to an important British invention... the concentration camp.

As I recall (I'm older than I look)the Brits, faced with their inability to defeat the Dutch settlers defending their homes and farms, put their families in concentration camps.

Nasty!

[Mike Wilkes]

Not "Copenhagening" (ie pre-emptively attacking and destroying) the Imperial German fleet in its early stages of development and as advocated by Admiral Fisher in 1904.

[Lawrence Ash]

Biggest mistake in British history?
Mass immigration that has effectively destroyed this nation's identity, replacing it with unworkable multiculturalism. A profound and very sad state of affairs.

[Christopher Chantrill]

1. Education Act of 1870. Previously education was funded by fees, charity, and top-ups from the government. Now look at the mess.
2. National Insurance Act of 1910. Previously Britons had a safety net called Friendly Societies and 75 percent belonged. And it kept the fees of doctors down.
3. Returning to the Gold Standard in 1925 at pre-war parity. The deflation caused enormous suffering to British working people.

[john pincham]

Releasing holders of land from the Crown of obligations proportionate to the value of their holdings. Hence a need to raise funds for national purposes by other means leading to the incredibly complicated systems of taxation with which we are now burdened. a further consequence was a need to raise public revenue, not merely for essential requirements of a nation - defence, administration of justice, public highways etc but also for relieving the poverty of those lacking rights to land and so obliged to pay those with free holdings for the use of land for dwelling and productive purposes.

[Norberto]

Declaring the war to Germany in order to grant and enforce Polish independence, and giving her up to Stalin at the end of the war.

[Norberto]

Betraying the Arabs at the end of WW II by recognizing the state of Israel in Palestine territory despite the loyal Arab contribution to the British war effort during the I and II WWs.

[john pincham]

Releasing holders of land from the Crown from obligations to the Crown proportionate to the value of their holdings and making them "freeholders". This created a need to raise revenue for public purposes by other means and the incredibly complex systems of taxation with which we are now burdened. With those lacking rights to land being obliged to pay freeholders for its use for living and productive purposes, a massive poor landless underclass arose in need of subsidy to enjoy an acceptable standard of living. This further increased the revenue needed by government and the extent of taxation.

[Howard Grattan]

Allowing King Edward V to be purchased by the Rothschild family - without anyone even realising it had happened.

[Peter Bolt]

The inexorable rise of "professional polticans", What is even more disturbing that absurdity has lead to the other tragic error. The inevitable rise of "pressure groups" and "special advisers"

[andy james]

pulling out of Africa prematurely following Macmillan's winds of change speech condemned two generations of Africans to poverty,abuse and lack of education at the hands of their own despotic dictators

[Simon]

Fascinating - in that it shows who are the historians, and who are the politicians-cum-axegrinders. My hat off to Mr Linklater for possibly the best entry.

But it is also rather disappointing to see that some 'mistakes' listed here are the results of complex processes, where it is impossible to say that a person or a body have made a mistake.

Perhaps the most obvious form of this is that we had any choice over our evolution from hunter-gatherers. Then include a myth that they were much healthier and happier. Oh dear.

[David Stanton]

The greatest mistake in British history has been the gradual abandonment of the things that made this country one of the foremost contributors to the ascent of man... democracy, the rule of law and the values of the enlightenment.

[nick G]

The two most recent Greatest Mistakes were: Voting In Tony Blair and New Labour, and Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London - now we are beginning to see his true colours, "RED".

[john chambers]

letting Tony Blair and his wife have three shots at ruining Britain for their personal own ends

[Nick Dixon]

The unchecked tidal wave of immigration will be Englands undoing , as for Britain as a whole , partition in India and Ireland appear to have caused the most harm to our citizen's both home and abroad ,also to our standing in the world .
Partition does not work it only propogates more hatred ,just ask the people of the middle east .

[Hayden G]

The carving up of former British colonies into fictional countries, bounded by previously non-existant borders, uniting unrelated (and frequently mutually hostile) people and lead by hand-picked puppet rulers chosen on the basis of allegiance (read: corruptability) rather than capabilities. A mistake compounded by the French who did much the same (albeit on a smaller scale) that has brought to many of the problems in africa, the middle east and asia that we now face today.

[Eugene]

Eliminating Greek & Latin from schools as mandatory subjects. Great countries function under wise elites.

[Julia E. S. Spencer]

Edward VIII was wise enough to know how infinitely preferable it was to be emasculated by a woman he found attractive than by remaining the mere figurehead of a once-great empire.

[stephen petty]

What an interesting question...as an American, I can refer to the mistakes of the First World War on all sides, but currently there are two big mistakes:

The labor government, and of course the conservatives, rolling over and letting Blair go to war under false pretenses and with historical amnesia: Hey, the British tried Iraq in the 20s with similar "success" and when does a Christian nation do will in the Islamic world since the first crusade? So, first big mistake, the English not having a grasp of their own history.

Second mistake is not to work more closely with the Europeans and create a strong European counterforce against the U.S. and rising China. Only in England, has anyone heard of a 'special relationship' and certainly not in the diverse U.S. Instead of being the puppydog of a U.S. president the British could excert strong and moral leadership in the European Union. And in the end that will happen, because where else really is there to go?

Nice to have current mistakes one can do something about, isn't it?

[R A Morton]

Taking religious beliefs seriously.

[Fred]

The beginning of large numbers of immigrants in the 1950's later to become a torrent and forever change the makeup of the British population. This remarkable event occurring in an already overcrowded island was never given the OK by the people of the time. Nor since has any opinion been asked of the ordinary person. A grand name was given to this happening still taking place over half a century later, multiculturalism.

[James]

British policy towards Ireland that led to the 1916 uprising and the aftermath.

The execution of WW1 and the failure to find a peaceful solution.

Churchill failing to persuade the Americans that preventing Eastern Europe from falling into Soviet hands was as critical an objective in WW2 as defeating the Axis.

The bodged handling of Indian Independence.

The Suez crisis.

The socialisation of the education system that started in the 1960's.

The sell-out of British sovereignty to Europe throughout the past 40 years.

The ongoing disaster of a failed multicultural and immigration policy.

Re-electing Labour in 2005.

The continued anachronism of a Monarchy in a so-called Democracy.

[Deborah]

Sending the convicts to Australia. Big mistake. The convicts should've been left in rainy England and there should have been a mass migration - royal family and all - to Australia.

[bobnessuk]

Thatcher.

[Peter H.]

The Munich Agreement should rank high. The French PM Édouard Daladier and the French general staff wanted to face down Hitler, even if it meant war. Neville Chamberlain was so wound up in his 'personal diplomacy' of giving concessions to Hitler that he refused to coordinate policy with the French or even consider a hard line. Bereft of its heavily fortified borderland, Czechoslovakia was unable to put up a fight and provide a second front in Europe. Also, the heavily industrialised Czech lands strengthened the Germans; nearly 1/3 of German tanks during the blitz in May 1940 was made in Czechoslovakia...

[Jon Hart]

This line of thought is in some ways intellectully pointless. For example if the mistakes of the 1930s had not led to WW2 then we would not have had nuclear power or jet engines by the late 1940s. OK we might have developed these things later, say by 1990 or 2000 but what if in the year 2300 it becomes necessary to use human technology to divert a race killing asteroid from hitting the planet earth? Without our mistakes, wars and tragedies the technology of energy, rocketry and weaponary would not be adequate for the task.

So all the great mistakes would then become great achievements.

For what its worth my top 10 UK mistakes are;

1) Axing the BBC soap Eldorado.

2) Spurs boast in 1990 that they were going to win the FA Cup (in a top ten Chas and Dave song) and then getting knocked out in the semi finals by Arsenal.

3) My second marriage.

4) The actress Lynne Perrie of Coronation Street having plastic surgery whilst on holiday without telling anyone. She was suprised when she was told that people would notice she had a new head having been on holiday to Skegness.

5) Pretty much everything Paul McCartney has done since 1970. (Sorry Paul).

6) Anyone who has ever hired Michael Mansfield QC to represent them. Has that guy ever won a case? All of his clients seem to be doing twenty plus years for things they never did.

7) Mark Chapman missing Yoko Ono six times while he accidentally shot John Lennon.

10) Me missing out mistakes eight and nine.

[Daniel]

Hello, well just say tha I'm spanish and love history. I found very interesting the post. I don't know much about British history, but I can offer some perspective on the little I know from the adversary (historically) point of view.
In my opinion the decision of Henry VII to break with the Catholic Rome was far from a mistake, a great succes. Spain can be taken as a reference of a contry which took the oposite direction and made itself the defender of the catholic church which lead to endless wars all over europe, and let the church, a conservative and fundamentalist institution (we would say nowdays) to get entangled in internal politics, leading to historical embarasment as the Inquisicion.

[John Price]

- Snubbing the meetings before the Treaty of Rome, which removed any real chance of britain having real influence in the development of what is now a "not quite" Union.
- Allowing xenophobic outsiders to get their hands on the British Press.
-Constantly looking backwards at a "Golden Age" and failing to look forward, to make the present and immediate future as good as they could be (or at least trying).
- Believing that we have to toe the US line in everything, and if we can't afford (or haven't bothered to develop) needed military equipment, we can get it "cheap" from across the Atlantic.

[Mother]

The 'Beeching ' of the railways

[Tam Earl-Aine]

Posted by: jon livesey | 7 Feb 2008 22:04:13

(Jon livesey's comment was the most perceptive so far.) Britain's greatest mistake wasn't made in the past. It is being made now by allowing indigenous British people to be overwhelmed by unfettered immigration.

[Sean Dunne]

Declaring war on Germany in 1939. We were in no condition to fight a war against Nazi Germany and events have shown that Hitler and Stalin would have fought themselves to mutual exhaustion as their war progressed. Ironically, we allied ourselves with two nations that had vested interests in weakening Britain and her Empire to the point of ruin - Soviet Russia and the USA. Hitler actually believed the survival of the British Empire was essential to world stability. Our subsequent inevitable decline, starting with voting in a socialist government in 45, dated from that decision. We have now reached that stage where the Britain that we grew up in and was the supreme achievement of generations of an homogenous, identifiable ‘race’ of people, will have disappeared in about 50years or so and the glory that Britain was, will become, like the Ancient Greeks - a memory that will be marvelled at by future historians.

[Tim]

Entering WW1 instead of, with Germany, taking over the parts of the world that were not already in the Empire.
Given that the Crusades were lost in the middle ages, not continuing them in the heyday of Empire.
Forcing the abdication of Edward VIII rather than assassinating Stanley Baldwin and the Archbishops who objected to Mrs Simpson

Not joining the Euro.
Not contiuning all the way to Moscow from Berlin in 1945 with nuclear weapons to help it along a bit.
Allowing the British labour party to exist at all let alone take power

[David Grimm]

I can't believe some are saying entering WWII was our greatest mistake. It is the thing I am most proud about Britain for. When other nations protected their own interests we risked all to stop a facisim. Yes it brought about the end of the empire and the USA used it to cream money out of us for the next decades, like the selfish nation it was shown up to be, but we did what was right.

[Juliette]

To everyone who thinks appeasement was a mistake - in 1936, we could not have won in a war against Germany, as they had three years of amrs preparation on us. In 1939, we had developed the Spitfire, the weapon which basically saved us when Germany tried to invade. Neville Chamberlain had good reason for what he did, and without appeasement, Hitler could have won WW2 and then where would we all be?!

[Dieu et Mon Droit]

The greatest mistake in British history?

Not to be French !

(un peu d'humour, ça ne fait pas de mal...)

[Charles]

1st July 1916. 57,000 casualties within a few hours when the army advanced on intact defensive positions.

[Stewart]

Well said David Grimm, I couldn't belive some of the comments saying that we should have sided with the Nazis. No matter what the consequences of WWII were, we did the right thing, and are a better people for it.

[Recusant]

Breaking with Rome, which unleashed a rapacious class of ennobled looters on the wealth of the monasteries whilst ensuring their subservience to the looter in chief: the Crown.

Gone was charity, education, protection of craft guilds. In came Poor Laws, school and college closures and a 'stuff-you' materialism.

[Tom Simon]

What a miserable lot we British are! I think that these various lists between them have covered just about every significant act Britain has taken! How about a list of the best things we have done instead??? Then again, it would probably look much the same.

On another note - neutrality in WWII... are you insane? I agree with David Grimm (and Churchill) that WWII, all told, was our finest hour!

[Alec Rennie]

Aberdeen FC not signing Denis Law in the 1950s and selling Charlie Cooke to Dundee for £40,000 in the 60s

[Nicola Medici]

I agree with Magnus Linklater that any historical mistake is judged from today's political perspective.
Starting from this point of view the great historical wrong decisions of British history are:
1) Henry VIII's break with Rome
2) the Ninenteen Propositions send by Parliament to Charles I at York in 1642 asking him to align himself with protestant nations and to break with Continental Europe.
3)George III and the loss of American colonies
4) the WW1
5) the WW2
Because of these mistakes now Great Britain isn't nor flesh nor fish.

[Kenneth Paterson]

Suez:
Not resigning from NATO (or at least threatening it)in order to prevent being considered a US satellite state for the next 50 years.
EU:
Not obtaining free trade status instead of membership.
WW II:
Not annexing all the middle east oil states after victory.

[Peter Croft]

1) Prince Charles' decision not tomarch on from Derby in 1745 when he could have taken London, restored our legitimate kings, and spared us 270 years of German-speaking Hanoverian halfwits.

2) The failure to use adequate force to suppress the rebel American colonists in 1776 (Lord North famously remarked 'half a dozen frigates will do the job.') Had a more robust line been taken America would now be a peaceful and prosperous part of the British Empire and vastly better off than it now is.

3)Colonising Australia. This has resulted in a constant stream of humiliating cricketing disasters that has sapped national morale to the point where we are prepared to become part of Europe.

4) inCLUDING THE CAPS LOCK KEY ON THE STANDARD KEYBOARD.

[Jeanne]

1. Loss of empire (including loss of the American colonies and appeasement of Hitler).
2. Dismemberment of the public school system and thus deterioration of high quality education, with emphasis on the classics
3. Multiculturalism and attempts to appease fundamentalists of other faiths
4. Destruction of competent public transport
5. All movements away from government by an educated elite to government by the population at large
6. Adoption of the EU Human Rights Act

[sydney hobson]

The civil war that is yet to come, partly due to the lies we were told about joining the E.U and partly due to bad goverment past and present alloeing unfettered immigration, I believe it is not far off now

[Lewis Baston]

Tempted to add that 'leaving comment threads open' given the parade of lunacy and fascism above...

More seriously, I think any catalogue would have to include
1. Going to war in 1914;
2. Not going to war in 1938.
While not on the same scale, 3. introducing internment in Northern Ireland in 1971 was a stupid decision, and it was more volitional than the others - it was a real decision, and less the undesirable product of circumstances. I would also add 4. ignoring the Messina conference and 5. Suez.

[Peter GODDARD]

The three greatest mistakes and lost opportunities:

1. Not being a founder signatory of the Treaty of Rome in 1957
2. Not joining the the Schengen area in 1990
3. Not joining the euro in 2000

Never joining in, always opting out, always missing out.

[Pete, Hull]

1. Taking off Bobby Charlton in the 1970 World Cup quarter-final against West Germany, allowing Beckenbauer to run riot.
2. Not making Screaming Lord Such Prime Minister.
3. Matthew Parris' "Decapitate cyclists" Christmas message.
4. Inventing television.
5. Trad Jazz.

[Mike Smith]

The Left/Liberal consensus that has prevailed in this country since the Second World War. This has resulted in high taxation, a failed state secondary education system, uncontrolled immigration into an already crowded country and the handover of sovereignty to the EU.

[Alex]

Has everyone forgotton the last few years? Was it not an incredible blunder to blindly follow the Americans into Iraq? I am sure that in 100 years this will be looked upon as one of the biggest mistakes of the 21st century.

[S af Ugglas]

Harold Wilson is outstanding in causing a total disaster in Great Britain. With an extension lasting to Blair and Brown.

[Peter Pan]

Great, at least someone in England start to revise critically the british foreign policy before the second world war. What about the Stresa Front? And the anglo-german naval agreement of june 1935? Who crashed the anti-Hitler dam in that period? Who pushed Mussolini in Hitler's hands? Each catastrophe is the result of a chain of mistakes and England made a lot to open the way to war. Was only a genuine wrong strategy or a more cinycal miscalculation?

[Happy American]

God Bless the English. You still believe you had a chance against the "rebel" American colonists. Which stings worse? Losing to a group of raggedy barbarians, or losing to barbarians supported by the French?
Since Yanks and Brits have a recent habit of making mistakes together, I submit Operation Market Garden combined with a failure to get out of the Normany hedgerows sooner. So many of our problems can be traced to letting Stalin win the race to Berlin.

[AGC]

Giving away the British:
lead in computer technology;
supersonic experimental aircraft that became the US rocket powered Bell X-1;
invented Magnotron and lead in radar and microwave technology;
lead in jet engine design;
lead in antibiotic technology.

Present unfettered, uncontrolled immigration;
Acceptance of religious fundimentalism and its zealots into the UK;
NuLabours 3rd term.

Enough to be going on with.

[Barney]

Biggest Mistakes - in no particular order, they were all blunders!

1. The sperm that won the race to the egg to make Margaret Thatcher.

2. Giving the monarchy its power back after the execution of Chuck the first.

3. Henry VIII (reasons are expansive)

4. Letting America go. If we hadn't we'd end up owning half of South America, still have the east and have enjoyed cordial trade relations with Germany since the 1800s.

5. The Slave Trade - reasons? Well just use your common sense!

Stop poncing around with treaties!

[Burt]

The evolution of the Stiff Upper Lip mentality- which has led to the general public being exploited and lied to by successive governments, local government and corporations. Myriad taxes and stealth tax increases, licensed mugging (wheel clampers and C-charge fines) set against declining services (ie the NHS), exorbitant waste, increased costs for things like public transport, and companies that spend millions on marketing and nothing on people to answer the phone. The British people are treated with a level of effrontery and dishonesty that would shock people from some African dictatorships.

[Eamon]

Surely WW1 was the greatest mistake. Lives lost. And how it led to Treaty of Versailles and German grievance later on.

[sergio]

To Mr Hermann Burchard :

Yes you have changed the subject slightly! but so interestingly! I think you must have been writing your article with your heart rather than with your brain,like somebody who probably flares up rapidly... Think of what you have written! So, according to you, Bismarck should have dismantled France in 1871, poor France! What is more, this would have been in total contradiction whith a constant in British foreign policy throughout history regarding continental Europe. No country too powerful on the continent that could rival Britain. A constant that gave the way to Britain to explore the rest of the world. Had France been dismantled and disapeared as a medium-sized power capable of counter-weighting Germany, yes WWI and WWII would have not occured, and nazism and communism would be unknown but I guess another war would have taken place between Britain and Germany to rule the world, without France to play its role as a 'shock absorber'. I would be so sad that Britain be a mere German dominion.

[Peter Croft]

Balls. Of course we could have defeated the rebel colonists in 1776 with an ounce of grit and muscle and looking ar Clinton Obara and McCain who could possibly argue that they would not be better off as a parish council within the British Empire? They might even have learned how to play cricket and soccer.

[Marco]

Voting for Attlee and embracing Marxism.

[Malcolm Govender]

Well Where to begin, How about the disregard for Human life in search of profit. Famines created in India that killed millions.
Your discussion seems too moderated please post this so that we can have a real dialog about British Attrocities.

[Malcolm Govender]

Well Where to begin, How about the disregard for Human life in search of profit. Famines created in India that killed millions.
Your discussion seems too moderated please post this so that we can have a real dialog about British Attrocities.

[Sunder Katwala]

10 fatal errors of political leadership of the 20th century

These are all mistakes in that I think they all backfired politically from the viewpoint of the interests and goals of the principal actors, (from a neutral perspective; whatever the merits of those goals).

1. Chamberlain at Munich.

2. Eden and Suez – how to lie about war to Parliament.

3. The fall of the aristocracy: the Lords rejection of the People’s Budget of 1909.

4. The Foreign Office’s belief that the Treaty of Rome would not amount of anything – turning down the leadership of Europe and losing an empire without finding a role.

5. Asquith’s 1915 coalition and 1916 split with Lloyd George – killing off the Liberals as a party of government.

6. The end of Old Labour: Jim Callaghan blocking In Place of Strife in 1968 and reaping the whirlwind in 1978-9.

7. The end of Old Labour II: Arthur Scargill calling the miner’s strike without a ballot.

8. Ramsay MacDonald and Phillip Snowden’s rejection of Keynes in the depression.

9. Attlee calling an unnecessary election in 1951 – so losing Labour’s chance to govern the age of affluence.

10. John Major winning the 1992 general election – so setting the Tories on the path to a near death experience.

[Jack Webster]

From it's earliest colonies, America was settled by as great a number of people who wanted to get away from Britain as simply wanted to find fortune. As many as a third of Ulster Scots moved from NI to the colonies prior to the American revolution, going a large way to create a country which would always be looking westward, and which could hardly be contained or remain contented under British law. It's a fool's paradise to think that Britain could have held on to America, when it was settled by so many people who found they wanted to be there, and not be British.