Proud to be British ?

Flight · April 24, 2012

It's been a long time since I've felt any pride in being British and longer since I felt any pride being English.

Hasn't there been a TV series on recently (Paxman ?) about our colonial past ? Totally missed it so not sure it was worth watching

We previously discussed the Mau Mau case, Mau Mau torture claim Kenyans win right to sue British government

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/21/mau-mau-torture-kenyans-compensation

Anyway the more I learn, the more I realise the less I knew. I should be clear I'm not so surprised at what happened in history more our (our ? I mean our 'betters' of course) present reaction to it.

Last week's revelations, that the British government systematically destroyed the documents detailing mistreatment of its colonial subjects, and that the Foreign Office then lied about a secret cache of files containing lesser revelations, is by any standards a big story. But it was either ignored or consigned to a footnote by most of the British press. I was unable to find any mention of the secret archive on the Telegraph's website. The Mail's only coverage, as far as I can determine, was an opinion piece by a historian called Lawrence James, who used the occasion to insist that any deficiencies in the management of the colonies were the work of "a sprinkling of misfits, incompetents and bullies", while everyone else was "dedicated, loyal and disciplined".

However, among the documents are a handful which show that many of the most sensitive papers from Britain's late colonial era were not hidden away, but simply destroyed. These papers give the instructions for systematic destruction issued in 1961 after Iain Macleod, secretary of state for the colonies, directed that post-independence governments should not get any material that "might embarrass Her Majesty's government", that could "embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants or others eg police informers", that might compromise intelligence sources, or that might "be used unethically by ministers in the successor government"

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Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes

18/04/2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes?newsfeed=true

Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them

23/04/2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/23/british-empire-crimes-ignore-atrocities

Edited April 24, 2012 by Flight

Mike · April 24, 2012

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