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SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: The Legacy of Empire
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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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Food Standards and a Top Brexiter’s Fishy Business
Looking forward to Jersey Royal potatoes fresh from New Jersey? Henry Dyer reports on how US/UK trade talks could endanger British food standards
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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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The Day I Discovered My Ancestor was a Slave Owner
Stephen Colegrave uncovers a family secret and realises how easy it is to whitewash our slavery roots.
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Speaking Another Language: A Social Media Tale
Otto English takes us on a journey through the history of the English language, the exceptionalism of Empire and the furious and curious of Twitter.
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Brexitannia: The British Identity Crisis
Brexit has become an identity conflict in Britain. It is Danny Boyle’s London Olympics Opening Ceremony versus the Last Night of the Proms. Where do we go from here?
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How My Punjabi Immigrant New Labour-Supporting Parents were Charmed by Boris Johnson
Hardeep Matharu reflects on the personal story of her parents’ political shift towards the right – and what it might represent about Britain as a whole.
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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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Brexit Britain’s Love Affair with its Navy is Rooted in a Foolish and Costly Obsession with the Past
How Brexiteers’ obsession with the sea and Boris Johnson’s promise of more money for ship-building represents a yearning for the days of Empire.
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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
