We haven't been in a long long while and even then for a long while in the last century of the colonial times we were fighting against slavery and negotiating with colonies to hand back control to their own governments...
We are a strong country, a proud country, part of America's ancestry... but we are a very different people to that we were when there was an empire... very, very different.. most of us, and i mean the vast majority are into fair treatment, equality and valuing diversity.. If anything you could say we are too fair, too generous, too understanding and accepting.. but there's no way we are a people who build empires and seek to take advantage of other people's lands and riches... There are countries that still do that round the world unfortunately but we learned and became self aware enough to know it is wrong a long time ago..
Those were very different times.. times when not just we were building empires, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch had massive empires, along with Germany, Portugal etc.. those were just a more barbaric time... and for the UK it was a time when there was much injustice even at home... MY ancestors were probably just as downtrodden, if not more so than those poor souls in India, etc...back then most people were kept poor, as little more than slaves themselves, with no education, no rights, no access to medical care.. the Upper classes, the gentry, the aristocrats ran things.. we had NO say... Most, as in the majority of Brit people were poor and downtrodden.
And yet, hateful, selfish, greedy and abusive as the aristocrats were it was also an awareness among them that brought about change.. many of them knew it was wrong, so they fought to overturn slavery, to make it illegal, they set up schools and made education compulsory, so the ordinary Brit people began to have a say.. they gained power...
I just wish those who still see us as a war mongering colonialist people could understand that that was a very long time ago... most of us are really quite liberal... and yes, i do mean most.... the majority...
And that brings me on to the clip I copy a link to below. ..this is Prince Charles speaking on Radio 4... and you know, even though I am not the biggest fan of the Royalty I DO have a great deal of respect for Prince CHarles.. he cares, he is an environmentalist, an organic gardener etc... and here he talks about the need to respect people and their religion... and the whole point of this is... well even though I have nothing in common with Prince CHarles.. he pretty much reflects what most of us think and feel.. most of us are for equality and respect...
Here's the link.. if it doesnt work look up BBC radio 4* and THought for the day... * incidentally anyone who's interested in understanding Brits pretty much how we think and feel is reflected in BBC Radio 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04mb0d7
