2008/12/20 Bru Peckett <[email protected]> > Steve Heaven wrote ... > > > On Fri, 2008-12-19 at 13:12 +0000, Ian Cardinal wrote: > > > > > Like it or not, Britain did have a terrible colonial > > > history in Ireland > > To be pedantic, *England* had a terrible history in Ireland dating back to > long before the colonial era. > > > And most of the rest of the world ! > > And by and large, the British Empire was a relatively benign influence (I > emphasise the word 'relatively'). > > I remember my first trip to India. At that stage I thought the British Empire had a 'relatively benign' influence too. That was until I got into my first discussion with an educated Indian versed in Indian history. We milked the world commercially for 200 years, Bru. And for no better reason to make money out of it. As a result large swathes of the world, including India, are much poorer than they should be. Other parts, particularly in Africa, have been in political and economic meltdown ever since. Is that what you mean by 'relative'?
Steve [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
