While that is, to say the least, highly debatable, Andrew Marr has been pondering what exactly Winnie would have made of Britain today, in preparation for an upcoming book and TV series**. The great man, according to Marr, would have positively abhorred one particular aspect of our current society.
One phrase that would certainly have resonated with the old boy is 'health Nazi' - the interfering busybodies who instruct us on what is good or bad for our health.
He never drank quite as much as he pretended to, but his consumption was still oceanic compared to modern recommendations, and life without cigar-smoking he would have regarded as barbaric. He came from a big-eating, heavy-drinking, tobacco-consuming generation which paid for their pleasures by dying earlier but - it might be argued - had a happier time before the final call.
Quite.
Marr further argues that the 'Greatest Briton of all time' would have been appalled at the way British citizens are now treated.
My guess, and it's only a guess, is that if Churchill had a single message now, it would be that the wartime generation did not suffer so that their descendants could be treated by their rulers like children.
Indeed. In fact, although it's difficult to ascertain exactly which way Churchill would lean politically if he were alive today, it's easier to imagine the message he would have for the likes of ASH and Alcohol Concern.
I reckon it might be something like this.
With you all the way, Winnie, with you all the way.
** Andrew Marr's The Making Of Modern Britain starts next Wednesday, at 9pm on BBC2.
