Do not be ashamed of what you are, but more importantly: do not be ashamed of what you used to be.
Last night, in New York, the president of Argentina Cristina Fernandez made a speech criticising what she sees as a British occupation of the Falklands. On the same day in London, the cabinet minister Eric Pickles raised a flag to celebrate the liberation of the islands in 1982. Two different parts of the world, two different views of what used to be called the British Empire. Ms Fernandez says the British should be ashamed of what she calls colonialism. Mr Pickles says we are protecting British sovereignty and the British way of life.
I agree with Mr Pickles. Not only should we be proud of our record in the Falklands, we should be proud of the Empire too. The Empire was an astonishing institution built by buccaneers, eccentrics and a few criminals. It built bridges and roads but it also spread education, medicine, law and democracy (which is why we're still in the Falklands).
And there's another, longer-term legacy which I saw for myself when I was in Bangladesh this year. Mistakes were certainly made in that region as the Empire came to an end, but today there is a network of British humanitarian workers all over Bangladesh, as there is in all the former colonies. It is the Empire as a benign and positive influence.
Jeremy Paxman makes a similar point in his book Empire, which is just out in paperback. If you are going to be colonised by anybody, he says, better to be colonised by the British.
And remember another thing too: no-one took to Empire with greater enthusiasm than the Scots. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't apologise for it. Be proud of our bloody, but brilliant history.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article