The People's Spitfire Pilot
 

The RAF Museum has started a poll to find the People's Spitfire pilot. However, the pilot must have flown MkV spits and can be any nationality. The Museum states that they will not produce a definitive list to vote from, and then produces a list of 11 pilots, two of whom are British and the remaining are from the commonwealth. In the comments section of the link below are already some inflammatory comments and some controversial views expressed. Having removed the Battle of Britain Hall at Hendon, is this the next row in the development of the Museum?

Britons, the RAF needs you: have your say in the vote for 'The People's Spitfire Pilot'

What a totally crass idea....

Which idiot dreamed up such a stupid notion?

Agreed.......

Thirded. Poor idea. Why not have a selection of stories - one's that will tickle at least a couple of everyones' fancy?

I get the impression that what they wanted was to put a cardboard cut out of Sir Douglas Bader next to the display, but needed to justify it as the result of a nationwide poll conducted in the Telegraph. Most people polled could probably name only Bader as a spitfire pilot and no-one else. I am glad that I am not the only one who considered this a poor, ill-thought concept.

We could always nominate OUR Spitfire pilot, Danny. :D I know it would be a waste of time, far too humble, and like I, would think it all a crock.

Extremely ill thought - I remain in awe of all the young men who fought (and the many of whom perished) on our behalf.

I doubt many of our Gen Y's even know who Bader was....

Smacks of Blair/Campbell to me - The People's .........

And what about the pilots who flew Hurricanes, don't they count?

WTF...?! No doubt it would all have to finish with a countdown while waiting for the decision to be announced, <cue sound of heartbeat>, and rising tension.. Ant & Dec.. Crass in the extreme. Agree with every single comment above.

IMHO the RAF Museum needs to be looking for a replacement curator. All the above has my vote!

Really, such lightweight populism is just a sad reflection of the UK today. Also, sad to say, the RAFM does seem to be rather dumbed-down to me. :sad:

OAP

RAF Museum
 

Organised by 'numpties' who do not have a clue about history.
Battle of Britain display demise says it all.
They should put up a couple of 'Belfasts' at Kenley and move there.

Truly awful. Even populism has moved on from "The People's" concept!
I'm only surprised that the political correctness police haven't insisted on a German candidate....

Indeed.

RAFM had a info tent/display at Goodwood Revival last weekend, and what was in there and how the RAFM was being 'promoted' just left one walking away shaking your head..... :*

I agree, utterly crass. A recent dealing with the RAF Museum would suggest that it is in poor hands.

What utter bolleaux. The RAF Museum top brass seem to have lost the point. Just IMHO of course

It's obvious that no one from the RAFM looks at Pprune . . . . . . . :sad:

It's obvious that no one from the RAFM looks any further than their own ar$ehole.

Perhaps we should give then some of their own stupidity back, and start a campaign for "Spitty McSpitface"

Boys, just take a look at the top brass at the museum!!!!!! Says it all!!!👿

So, reading the list I see we have a black man (sorry, man of colour), a gay man, a woman, a disabled man, - what a flipping contrived list. They missed a trick though in leaving Paddy Finucane off the list - they could have got the Irish in as well!

God save us :ugh:

Indeed, utter diversity tokenism....:yuk:

I could only see two Trustees who had ever flown an aeroplane in the Service. None in senior management. I think only
three in either of the above who'd served in the Service at all

Why don´t we start a campaign voting in favor of "Rockfist Rogan"


How we larfed when he won:E

I did quite enjoy a visit to the museum but I can think of no reason to continue! I have never come across such a crass idea in my life and I have seen a few! (Ideas, that is!)

Bill

And the worst thing is that 'Widge' Gleed almost certainly deserves to be considered as a representative Spitfire V pilot on the basis of his record, but his selection for this exercise now looks to be more about his personal life than his achievements. The whiff of political correctness means that interesting candidates such as Screwball Beurling, Ian Blair et al, may be overlooked (the voting seems to be going that way). I dare say that there will be attempts at rigging the vote as well, with possible campaigns on social media, to get a particular individual to the top of the list. Since the vote is currently set up so that you can click on the link in the original post, open that page in a new tab, vote, close the page, click on the link in the original post, open that page in a new tab, vote for the same person you just voted for, close the page, click on the link in the ori... Put another way, three Ppruners with time on their hands and a high boredom threshold could put Ian Blair (say) on 1000 votes long before midnight were they so minded.

Also, beyond the curators, it appears that those nominating the candidates have been chosen because based on their area of expertise/authorship, they would nominate a gay man (Stephen Bourne), or a Jamaican (Mark Collins), or... Conspicuous by absence are any recognised historians of the RAF - Stephen Bungay, Dilip Sarkar, Philip Sabin, Tony Mason, Richard Overy (or even Max Hastings or Dan Snow). While the historians might have come up with a list of three (although I suspect not), even that risk would be militated by the curators' choices.


And all of that, of course, is without pondering the wisdom of the RAFM attempting to turn itself into some sort of museum version of Great British Dancing on Ice Bake Off Factor, or the slightly tacky 'reward' for the winner of the vote of being memorialised in cardboard. If that is to be the fate of those nominated, it would seem rather better - but entirely out of keeping with the dumbed-down approach to museum curating these days - to provide a series of information boards about all of them, showing the range of pilots the Spit had during the war, and fulfilling the intention far more effectively than this piece of crassness...

Edit - you can even vote for more than one person at a time on the Telegraph webpage!

More proof metaphorically, if it was needed, that the monkeys having been running the zoo for quite some time now.

Why just a Spitfire? Why a Mk.V and not a Mk.1A? Why not a Hurricane?

How about The People's Beverley Pilot?

How about The People's Air Electronics Operator?

or, The People's Aircraft Fitter (Airframe)?

It's all a load of Bollocks.

The People's Fairy ????

Not even a mention of `Ginger` Lacey..

The sad thing is that these people are serious: my first thought was "is it April First?" and my second was that Private Eye had gone off the boil.

Anyway, I want to be The People's Met Man. Please PM me if you would consider voting for me and I will send you a 4000 word justification.

They will be asking of nominees for I Was A Spitfire Pilot Get Me Out Of Here next.

Having read the comments here, and in the historic section, and on other forums regarding this vote, I believe that we should all take the p*ss and vote for:-

Squadron Leader Spitty McSpitface

Worked with naming a boat, didn't it.....??

Pass it on.....

...........and then there was the dashing pilot in the Victor, NO not that victor silly, the comic!:}

Glad to see you second my suggestion; I'll make you my deputy. Post 20

Whereas I concur with the main trust of the comments here, if you want an example of 'dumbing down' to the nth degree, have you been to the Imperial War Museum (London) recently???? I believe £14m spent to turn it into a temple of sanctimonious PC claptrap...

I believe HCAP(sic) have put their weight behind TCT for this accolade.

What for? Strictly Come Lying?

TCT flew round the world solo in a Mk V, y'know. She's got a medal for it and everfink. The FAA (no, not that FAA, silly) even made her a Commander or a Rear Admiral or something.

She developed and patented a cardboard cutout of her own, but that was to protect her nose which somehow kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger every time she gave a talk about her round the world solo exploits in a Spitfire without an iPad.

OK, so it was a two-seat Mk V, but that's 'cos it was an 'outreach' project.

Just don't mention the Austrian bloke, though. I did once, but I think I got away with it.