[applause] >> next up to oppose the motion is anthony beaver, historian whose books have different aspect of world war ii and beyond. most notably "creet the battle and resistance" and stalingrad and more recently "d-day and the battle for nor mandy" anthony beaver. [applause] >> i never expected to hear pat buickenen backing up putin's series that the british were responsible for world war ii. let's please concentrate on the key issues of the debate, whether or not churchal was an asset to the free world and when was that? the free world was most at risk during the second world war. so, you know, the gold standard or all of this stuff, let's concentrate on the really important period. now, of course churchill made mistakes, in war who doesn't in but as hastings argues in his book, is that churchill made most of his when he was trying to galvanize the defensive mentality of britain's military establishment. he did adopt a peripheral strategy, so it had been the traditional strategy because we were off shore, we were an island, we did not have the sort of frses when could engage on straigh