The Glories of Empire.

OK, before I sign off the blog for the day, let’s have a go at British imperial attitudes and behaviour.

Between the 1920’s and the 1960’s, 130,000 British children were shipped off to former British colonies under a scheme engineered by the British Government. These kids were told they were going to a better life. In fact, many of them – maybe even the majority – were being transported into a life of cruel exploitation and routine abuse. The government knew what was going on and chose to turn a blind eye. Today, Gordon Brown apologised to them, calling it a ‘shameful’ episode in British history. Another one? Should we perhaps also recall Amritsar, Croke Park, the British concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War, the murderous labour camps in British India – the slave trade?

And before my American friends settle into an attitude of self-righteous smugness about this, may I suggest that they remember their own involvement in the slave trade, their treatment of indigenous peoples, Vietnam, Nicaragua – not to mention one or two things I would consider it injudicious to make reference to online.

Enough. My equanimity is slipping.