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SubscriptionsCategory: Empire
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Imperial Power & Conservative Taboo: ‘Shutting Down Debate on Empire is Britain’s Ultimate Imperial Legacy’
Following the backlash over a ‘wokeist’ National Trust report on the links of historic buildings to colonialism and slavery, Hardeep Matharu speaks to one of its editors about how the predictable response is itself a hangover from the country’s colonial era
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UNCONSCIOUS EMPIRE: Saving ‘Britannia’ and Losing the Plot
Continuing to wage a Steve Bannon-style culture war, Boris Johnson’s Government will do nothing to confront the damaging legacy of our imperial past because its mythologised symbolism is all it has to sell to Brexit Britain, argues Hardeep Matharu
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Did Black Lives Matter to the British Empire in World War Two?
The often overlooked story of the African soldiers who risked their lives and left their families to fight for the British must finally be recognised – as the sacrifice of their white counterparts is
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Britain Must ‘Execute Its Historical and Moral Duty’ to Hong Kong
As a new parliamentary report accuses the city’s police force of humanitarian and human rights abuses, calls continue for the UK Government to take a tougher stance towards Beijing
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: The Shocking Brutality of Empire was a Scandal In Its Own Time
John Mitchinson considers the relationship British people have with their country’s past and how questions raised by uncomfortable imperial truths remain unanswered
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Australia’s Convict Colony Past Produced the Interview that Wrecked Trump
CJ Werleman explores why the Australian journalist Jonathan Swan was able to sidestep deference and put the American President on the spot as others have been unable to do
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OUR LIVES MATTER: Eurocentrism & the Privilege of Not Having to Care
Airbrushing the crimes of European history fuels the structural racism and conscious apathy we see in modern Britain, argues Khadija Akhi Uddin
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Government Snubs Windrush Group’s Concerns Over Lack of Caribbean History Teaching
The Government’s inaugural Windrush summit led to a dispute over an absence of Caribbean history on the curriculum, reports Sam Bright
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A British Route to Freedom for the Hong Kongers Left Frozen by Beijing’s Chill
Tommy Walker speaks to pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong about their future in the city, following the imposition of China’s draconian national security law
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A Blindspot in History: The Truth About Churchill
Churchill Fellow Nishtha Chugh argues that Britain will only truly understand its imperial history with a fuller appreciation of its wartime leader’s legacy
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In the COVID-19 Era, the Boomer Generation is Out of Touch
COVID-19 signals the end of Boomer dominance over business, culture and the economy, writes Stephen Colegrave
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Another Controversial Historian Uses Darren Grimes’ Platform to Pursue Right-Wing Culture Wars
After the furore over comments by historian David Starkey, Sam Bright reports on a second attempt to rewrite British imperial history in response to the Black Lives Matter movement
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Prince Harry Calls Time on the System of Secrets and Lies Modern Britain is Built On
Comments by the Queen’s grandson on the need to ‘right those wrongs’ from the past across the Commonwealth reveal why he is rebelling against the system that created him
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The Last Protests? Has Beijing Finally Stifled the Flame of Freedom in Hong Kong?
Tommy Walker reports with eyewitness accounts of this week’s demonstrations in the former British colony and explores what Boris Johnson’s offer of refuge means to the residents of Hong Kong
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Revealed: Boris Johnson’s Hidden History of Islamophobia
Iggy Ostanin unearths troubling new evidence of anti-Muslim racism in a rediscovered personal blog of Britain’s Prime Minister
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To Alabama and Back: The Memorial that Holds Up a Mirror to Racism
Hannah Charlton takes a journey into America’s dark history of segregation and subjugation of black communities and wonders how Britain could do the same
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Static Statues Can’t Change their Position – But We Can
Beyond offensive memorials being removed, real progress will come when we talk to each other and make it our focus to understand the other side, writes Bonnie Greer
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Priti Patel Cannot Make Herself a Poster Girl for a ‘Non-Racist Britain’
By using herself as an example of how Britain is not a racist a country, the Home Secretary is blind to how such thinking keeps structural inequality firmly in place against others from minority communities, writes Hardeep Matharu
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Infection & Revolution: What Can We Learn from the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’?
From economic aftershocks to social unrest, racial discrimination and healthcare inequality, Otto English predicts a pandemic will transform this century just as it did the last
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Beyond Exceptional: The Etonian English Imperialism at the Heart of a Deadly COVID-19 Crisis
With one of the highest Coronavirus death rates in the world, the UK has proven itself to be exceptional. But its problems go beyond shallow notions of complacency and are rooted in deep-seated structural and cultural oppression
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From Sajid Javid to Rishi Sunak: Boris Johnson’s New Version of the Old Colonial ‘Divide and Rule’ Game
Hardeep Matharu explores what the rise of Conservative ethnic minority politicians reveals about the party’s approach to race and diversity.
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History Isn’t ‘Woke’ – It’s the Best Defence we have Against Tyranny and Hate
Hardeep Matharu explains how Laurence Fox’s myopia about the role of Sikh soldiers in World War One is a wider British problem of imperial amnesia.
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How We Came to Forget: Imperial Amnesia Helped Propel Brexit – It’s Time to Set the Historical Record Straight
Hardeep Matharu explores a new National Trust project designed to shed light on the colonial roots of country houses and the need for a more honest, less mythical discussion of Britain’s past.
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‘Brexiters Used Empire in the Mind to Weaponise People’s Prejudices and Fantasies’
A sense of British exceptionalism based on our colonial past is “alive and kicking” in hearts and minds – and we must make ourselves aware of it, warns Lord Victor Adebowale
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Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Brexiters’ Persistent Myths of Empire
Britain has not really faced up to losing an empire and the unresolved cost is playing out through the traumas of Brexit.
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The Myths of Immigration Just Don’t Add Up
Jonathan Portes, Professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London, on why the UK has long been a country shaped by immigration and immigrants – and how the reality of this is not as bad as the rhetoric portrays.
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Brexit and Empire: Nostalgia for a Nation that Never Was is Driving Britain over a Cliff
With the likely next Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, praising Britain today as the ‘Greatest Place on Earth’ all the unlearned lessons of Empire are coming back to haunt us.
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One Hundred Years On: Government Concerned about ‘Financial Implications’ of Apologising for 1919 Amritsar Massacre
100 years after the horrific expression of British brutality in India, the Government still appears unwilling to formally apologise for the killings in Jallianwala Bagh.
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The Story of Brexit is the Story of Empire: Why Did Asian Immigrants Vote to Leave the EU?
The complicated love-hate relationship of immigrants from former colonies with the British Empire cannot be ignored if lessons are to be learned in post-Brexit Britain, says Hardeep Matharu
