Unfortunate History
England, as opposed to Britain, has an unfortunate history around the world and within the British Isles and please do not say that it is all past.
This is astonishing and I link to it because I hope the entire blogosphere picks it up. Terry White (Communications Unit, The Labour Party) takes his place next to Vince Cable in the hall of self-shame. You’ve got to ask yourself what kind of communications officer, when faced with such a inquiry from a potential voter, would then attempt to alienate that voter even further in their response.
This “England, as opposed to Britain” bit is a particularly gratuitous insult. Not to mention the question that arises in my mind when I consider the timeframe of the Empire. Wasn’t it almost entirely a British, as opposed to English, project?
Tory Convert said:
Nov 26, 05 at 1:39 pm“Wasn’t it almost entirely a British, as opposed to English, project?”
I’ve certainly got at least one 19th century Scottish ancestor who was a soldier in the British Empire. Of course it’s untrue to say that it was an English project.
It is also ludicrous to imagine that the British Empire was a force only for bad. To me one of the most important illustrations of the mixed impact of the British Empire is the history of slavery.
Several New World British colonies used African slaves. This is a bad thing. But Britain was also the chief force behind the ending of the slave trade. How often do we hear about one, but not the other? The Trans-Atlantic slave trade existed long before the British Empire, so it certainly wasn’t its primary instigator. To imagine that it was is a peculiar type of parochial conceit in itself, ignoring the roles of the Spanish and Portuguese empires.
Yet Britain not only lead the way in abolishing the slave trade, but policed the international agreement to do so - at our own expense. Britain was the first western nation to end slavery in its colonies - 33 years before the USA and 55 years before Brazil. This happened largely thanks to campaigning commitment by ordinary members of the British public.
The knee-jerk assumption that either England’s or Britain’s role in the world has been uniquely “unfortunate”, while ignoring the good that our nation(s) has/ve also been responsible for is a grotesquely self-flagellating re-writing of history.
Administrator said:
Nov 27, 05 at 7:21 pmRight. We didn’t invent the slave trade, but we ended it.
As Gareth said, we have a mixed history. But I also like to think we have more high points than most.
revinkevin said:
Nov 28, 05 at 9:10 pmThat email needs to be broadcast as much as possible, to highlight the bigotory of this corrupt government.
Athelstan said:
Dec 02, 05 at 8:15 pmI would say this fool is just that and nothing else, he knows nothing of our history or world history. The English Nation may have been the or should i say laied the foundation stone of that once great Empire, but for most of the Empires history it was a British Empire and it ended as a British Empire not just an English Empire.
We had no dealings with slavery before the late 1500’s so it rather silly to say that England had anything to do with its beginings, before the English the Spanish and Portugise were dealing in slavery long before England. and other countries long before them going as far back as Rome, Grecce, Ejypt and many other city states before them, but we should look at the real roots of slavery. Did the whiteman begin the slave trade no of course not, but where were the whitemen getting these slaves from?
They resived them either from other black tribes or from arabe slave traders who were doing nothing but continuing the trade they’d been involved in for centuries, so saying that on particular race, nation or state is more guilty than any other is a farce and historicaly incorrect, there is not one nation or state that is completely clean and free of any guilt for any wrong that has taken place in the long history of the human race.
The English are not perfect and have made many misstakes but then so has every other nation, the English are human after all and not at all perfect. But i should like to say that if you add up all the good and bad thing that every Nation as done in this world i believe you will find that the English and later the British have given more and done more to and for the world than any other.
But methinks that most of this shoving all the ill in the world on Englands Shoulders is a Scots, Welsh and Irish escape root, since they un-democratically control Westminster and the media and an rather childish attempt at pointing their grubby little fingers at the English, and trying to make us English look worse than we actually are while at the same time doing their utmost to look squicky clean themselves. but i’d like to say does any modern country who were once provinces of the Roman Empire ever point their sanctimoniose fingers at modern Rome?
Of coures not infact we all admier the Romans and their Empire, yet you’ll find if you read Roman History that they were far more violent and aggressive than the English ever have been, in fact if you know the history of the English foundation of that Empire that it began as nothing more than a trading Empire and not just in slaves, and as others have pointed out it was England/Britain that went out of its way to brake the slave trade, and we didn’t have to fight a civil war over it either. But in freeing the black slave all those like Wilberforce and others who cried for the poor black slaves, didn’t shed any tears or shout to free their own unpaid native English slaves on their lands bake in Mother England did they.
Alan Coleman said:
Mar 11, 06 at 7:57 pmBang on! All northern Europeans have blood on their hands. What we’re dealing with here is what George Orwell called, “Negative nationalism”. And it’s very fashionable at the moment.
It reminds me of the Queen Mother in conversation with an African tribal leader, “I know just how you feel about the English, for I am Scottish”.
What?