Welcome to the mixed up world of statistics. Where 3000 Britons out of 60-some million determine the how the whole nation percieves reality. That little piece gives 0 data on how they collected those serveys, which has a HUGE impact on the results (to the point that you can engineer what ever result you want if your careful about how you collect data). Which means that the misfortune of catching (or willfully seeking) one too many mouth-breathing chavs at home makes Britain look like a natio of morons.
Just to sound like one of the cool peeps here: "Rule #4!!1!111 Politicz!1 Churchill = PM = politiczz!!1" Also, I find that statistic hard to believe. Now if they had said, "are some of the acts of Winston Churchill myths" (like that classic, "I will be sober in the morning" line) it might be more believable.
Or "The Homeless Game" as it was called for the last 20+ years on the Howard Stern Show before Jay Leno stole it.
Ah, all at once I feel better about myself. It's times like these that I'm happy that I got a good education.
-Benjamin Disraeli- statistics or not, if anybody thinks that Sherlock Holmes is real...that should scare you into suing the nation's school boards. if just one person out of 60 million Brits thinks Winston is a myth, there are probably a few people who think that 6 million jewish people just packed up and moved to Beverly Hills in the 1930s AND 1940s, too. this may sound extreme, but if you asked someone in London about the River Thames and they reply, "are they a punk band?" just put them in a cage with a set of encyclopedias in the Primate exhibit to show school children what happens when you grow up stupid.
I've been asked questions by a mouth breathing £6.00 an hour researcher on the street before. I didn't actually give one second of thought to any of the questions asked of me, just so I could blaze straight through the questions I stupidly set myself up for. - 'Name please?' "James Kirk" - 'Occupation?' "I'm in the Navy, so to speak" - 'Have you ever watched 'Britain's Most Haunted?'' "I think so, once... Believe I was on Beta Omega 13, reception was poor." etc etc... One would hope a similar thing is in effect here, along with the ususal demographic issues that surveys often raise (I would imagine that 15 -25 year old immigrants living in Manchester wouldn't really give a shit about any of Britain's history - however they are often targetted in these surveys).
