Iain Duncan Smith named 'greatest ever Briton'
31 Jul 2006 by D Billingham
In arguably the closest run contest since the 2000 US Presidential election, Iain Duncan Smith has pipped Winston Churchill and Cilla Black to the post in a poll to find the all-time greatest Briton. The former alleged Conservative leader drew 41.2% of the vote, which was commissioned by the online satire website DeadBrain to celebrate its fifth birthday.Churchill, a consistently strong performer in such contests, was a staggeringly close second, drawing 41.1% of the vote, with the Liverpudlian entertainer Black polling a strong 12.8%.
Chief Executive of the Iain Duncan Smith Foundation for the Re-housing of Feral Children, Douglas Ramsbottom, could not contain his glee when DeadBrain contacted him yesterday evening. "The word great is greatly overused nowadays, but we have always maintained that Iain Duncan Smith fits the definition to a tee," he said.
"I can't tell you how great it feels that the Great British public have well and truly verified our judgement and bestowed upon Iain the position of a truly great Great Briton. It has always been Iain's lifelong ambition to win a national poll and they don't come much sweeter than this!"
Other surprises in the top ten were Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik (7th) and millionaire cheat Major Charles Ingram (10th). Pre-poll favourite Boris Johnson tied a disappointing 14th position with television's Joanna Lumley.
EU election observers were diverted from the Congo and declared the result "a bit iffy but adequate".
