REDWHITEANDBLUE wrote:
I have been very widely travelled in my life I spent almost 9 years in the Merchant Navy 32 years in West Yorkshire Police and the United Nations Police, I worked in a strategic role for the UN and had my own entity working in parts of Africa, I have circumvented the globe numerous times and as you can imagine I have been far and wide.
I will give a great example of Great Britain, go to East Africa in some of the countries there and see how we are respected (not by all) even though we had a brutal way of dealing with subjects throughout the Empire. We left a good and bad everywhere but the most I see is education structures, governance although one would argue that many countries are very corrupt, Health infrastructure, in fact we left infrastructure everywhere the problem is in cases who it was handed over to it was too early or it couldn't be handled.
Now compare this to Central Africa where predominantly France and some other European Nations ruled and then have a think about our Nation. The UK is a great place the trouble is we now have a society who expect everything on a plate or cry wolf if not.
So Vasty I am with you on this one
These days there seems to be no balance and perhaps it's always been that way.?
But if you take a look at the Empire then on balance the legacy it left was more positive than negative.
The problem was not the empire but how the aftermath was handled, empires of all sorts have come and gone throughout history. We left a legacy to people who were not ready for it and since that point we, mainly the USA liberals and arms dealers have endlessly interfered. They will get there in the end and find a version of democracy that suits them, it took us a thousand years!
We've given the world a template that's all, one that can be endlessly improved and adapted and I don't think that's a bad gift to the world.
It's not that I'm blinded or am plain stupid, I can see all that was wrong with colonialism, hindsight is a great gift. But the world has never developed peacefully and if the British Empire had not existed the vacuum would almost certainly have been filled by a far worse one.
The four greatest and most dynamic empires of all time were the Greek, Roman, Chin and British Empire. Almost all the worlds greatest discoveries and systems come from them. All were warlike and all had a dark side but their achievements far outweigh the negatives.
List of British achievements off the top of my head.
Marna Carta, the post-Roman worlds first bill of rights, all be it very limited.
The reformation, the reason we became a Protestant nation doesn't matter, the way it energised this tiny island from sub servient to Rome to a superpower does.
The English Revolution, the first Parliament to cease power from a king.
The industrial revolution, say no more.
Postal services, the welfare state, NHS, BBC in its day, the Train the first real form of public transport, America, Australia, Canada, NZ many of the world's greatest democracies. The defeat of Nazi Germany and Napolian, dictators all. Even the short-lived slave trade was eventually brought down by British activists from a nation that itself never allowed slavery, servitude yes but not outright slavery.
As national CV's go, not too bad, warts and all but for some reason, we seem obsessed with celebrating the negatives,
