British Empire was not 'wicked' says Michael Palin, the travel writer and former Monty Python star. OK?

British Empire was not 'wicked' says Michael Palin, the travel writer and former Monty Python star. OK? telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6251398/Mich... says 'All the old Imperial stuff is now actually run by India: the Commonwealth organisation and the international popularity of Cricket.

Also, the Asian subcontinent -Pakistan- is the best place to buy Scottish bagpipes. )While the Empire – at its height controlling a third of the world’s population – had many, often brutal, failings, its positive effects were still being felt today, he said. Palin has just taken up the role of president of the Royal Geographical Society and, in an interview in Geogr "If we say that all of our past involvement with the world was bad and wicked and wrong, I think we're doing ourselves a great disservice.

Asked by spikejones 27 months ago Similar questions: British Empire wicked Michael Palin travel writer Monty Python star Entertainment > Music > Music Instruments.

Similar questions: British Empire wicked Michael Palin travel writer Monty Python star.

Hard to generalize, since so many countries were affected but the positive influence can be pointed to by the fact that so many of the countries fell into despotic rule after they left. And for example, the British are adored in Indonesia, the Dutch reviled as the scum of the earth. Not too many countries have the dubious privilege of having been under the thumb of two different colonial rulers and getting to compare.

The same is true of South Africa, to a certain extent, with the indigenous population orginally being glad the British defeated the Boers, until the small ruling elite down there started instituting apartheid to keep 1 million whites lording it over 18 million blacks and coloreds. Certainly if you look at the British record on slavery, prison reform, rights for women, they actually make a good showing, better, in fact, than the USA. Of course, a lot of passionate individuals like William Wilberforce brought that about, and the British were willfully awful in terms of Catholic Emancipation, with Ireland being on its own doorstep, so to speak.

Yes, atrocities were committed, and yes, it is true the missionaries rode roughshod over many traditional practices, but they also provided a strong government and attempted to institute a rule of law. The East India Company was a private army, in the main, and should have been governed a bit better by the British, but with the exception of a few rabid anti-catholics, anti-irish, and outright racists, they did a fairly good job of 'making the world England' rather than allowing disorder and lawlessness and chaos. (and yes, you could say they should be entitled to their own laws, but just look at the women having acid thrown in their faces in the Middle East just for wanting to go to school, or go without being wrapped up to the eyes-what law is being practiced there?) If you look at the former French and Italian and particularly Belgian colonies, well, their only lasting legacy was disaster and bloody civil war.

But as Ghandi pointed out, at some point a country has to grow up and be allowed to govern itself. Which means yes, in a lot of cases, they do get to kill each other in a civil war, and no one should intervene, alas. I would also like to point out that the British were the former rulers of Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, but they have had a great deal of outside interests and competing factions.

Afg. In particular went through hell with the Russian invasion. Iran and Iraq were deliberately alternately set at each others throats by the US, and Osama Bin Laden was trained by the US.

The "American Empire' after WWII has not even lasted 60 years, and look at its legacy. I think the "Commonwealth" countries also attest to the fact that want to retain their ties with Britain, and there is even one country that was NEVER owned by Britain that asked to be, and was allowed to, join=Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony.So I do agree there have been excesses over the centuries, but if you look at the colonial literature of the 15th to 17th centuries by the Spanish (which influenced the British in their treatment of Ireland in the 16th century) well, THAT is savagery for you, not what the British ultimately left behind as a legacy. JMHO.

I agree. The positive influence of the British Empire is still with us today: the language, the organization, the laws, and to a great extent, the civility. It seems to me that the former British colonies have fared much better than others.

Before I went to Europe as a traveler, I didn’t really understand how English America is. I know the history of the colonies and all that stuff, but you really understand our British origins when you travel to England. We have always had a fascination with each other.

Our relationship has been like parent and child, pricky at times, but always having an affection for each other and a bond that will never diminish.

I agree. While Mohammed said that if a Moslem killed another Moslem, it'd be an accident, the fact is that most Moslems killed are purposely murdered by other Moslems. For a time, under British rule, that was lessened.

Also, the Moslems like to brag that they kicked the Turks out when it was the British who kicked the Turks out, and the Arabs were actually doing nothing at all until Brit T.E. Lawrence showed up and taught them how to run an insurrection. Likewise, the ndu-Moslem sectarian violence in India that we see now (with native Christians often the target) also didn't happen and the land was at peace. While they celebrate Ghandi and complain about salt taxes and brutality, they seem oddly unwilling to give that credit where it's due.

Why is that? .

Well if slavery is not wicked then: He may be right. The empire (British) had in its domain many colonies which it treated with complete disregard to human rights as did the other super powers of those days,namely Spain and Portugal. The British empire along with the Catholics Popes Crusades previous to the empire's rise is much to blame for the extinction (genocide) of non-christians leading to the hate of Muslims and Islamic towards the west and towards Christianity.

I believe that the unfair treatment of the many kings of the British Empire is what also led to the revolution against the empire for their independence of the tyrannical rule of the Brittish. One,but not least,the colonies in the Americas known presently as THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA. Tell Mr.. Palin that there are those who also claim the Holocaust also did not exist.

I presume old age is getting that gizzard's brain. OH MONTY! Sources: :) .

1 OK some fair points here, perhaps, but the evil that men do lives after them, etc. In this instance, partition: wherever you see people blowing each other up in various parts of the world, it is often down to partition organised by my people: Ireland, Cyprus, Palestine, India, Pakistan...I find the history of the Bengal Famine of 1942 excrutiating. ANd let's not talk about Kenya. Story is a subject not fit to be taught in schools.

OK some fair points here, perhaps, but the evil that men do lives after them, etc. In this instance, partition: wherever you see people blowing each other up in various parts of the world, it is often down to partition organised by my people: Ireland, Cyprus, Palestine, India, Pakistan...I find the history of the Bengal Famine of 1942 excrutiating. ANd let's not talk about Kenya. Story is a subject not fit to be taught in schools.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.