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David Cameron: Britain caused many of the world's problems

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DC: Britain caused many of the world's problems

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8430899/David-Cameron-Britain-caused-many-of-the-worlds-problems.html

The Prime Minister appeared to distance himself from the imperial past when he suggested that Britain was to blame for decades of tension and several wars over the disputed territory, as well as other global conflicts.

His remarks came on a visit to Pakistan, when he was asked how Britain could help to end the row over Kashmir.

Daisy Cooper, the director of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, said: “This is typical of the UK’s schizophrenic relationship with former colonies where it is both proud and embarrassed about its past. The Coalition has said that it has big ambitions for a modern Commonwealth and the UK should stop being embarrassed about its colonial past and they should work with other countries to help improve their human rights.”

****ing muppet. I'm a Tory and one time supporter of Cameron, I still support most of his domestic policy. But going abroad and saying things like this! Get the gallows out boys

What do you think? Is he right? Wrong? Or should've just kept his big mouth shut on the whole thing.

I think we could play a role in mediating the conflict, were better placed than any other nation to do it. While the French have no problem keeping an eye on there former colonies we shirk away from it, even when they want us to do more in there nations. Its a disgrace

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He's an idiot.

Even if it's true, he shouldn't go around saying it.
We may have caused quite a few problems in the world, but we've a lot to be proud of as well.

Reply 3

Mechie

He's right, but he shouldn't be going around saying it.

Reply 4

Martyn*

He's right. The imperial west created problems with the old divide and conquer strategies to world domination in the past. I doubt that Cameron is embarrassed about Britain's colonial past. He's wedded to the upper echelons of society through ancestral links, and he is indebted to them, and if it were not for them, he would probably haven not gone to Eton, or Oxford, or wherever he went, and he would not be PM today. Without the imperial west Cameron would not have been giving a tea party to Freemasons in 2006! Nay! Cameron must be proud of his background and his ancestor's legacies.

I suspect Cameron is being two-faced and hypocritical. He's being apologetic for the mistakes of the past whilst also secretly admiring its achievements.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

HistoryRepeating

He is right, and facing up to it in the countries we have helped to screw up is the only responsible action.

There is nothing hypocritical in being proud of some of our past achievements, even colonial ones (Indian railways and parliamentary democracy in Australia, Canada etc), and apologising for others (the mess we made of the middle east, the subcontinent and some of africa).

All you nationalist idiots need to get some perspective.

Reply 6

Martyn*

Cameron is merely appealing to their moral sensibilities. Even Cameron knows that all bad past acheivements justify the ends, or justify the goal(s) towards the ends. He's not regretful of any bad mistakes in the past, because they are still part of an acheivement of sorts.

Reply 7

number_25

Not bad for the countries Prime Minister.....

What a blert.

Reply 8

Aphotic Cosmos

Well, we did. No getting away from that.

But it's something that we should attempt to remedy without chastising and flagellating ourselves on the world stage at the same time. We also shaped the world for the better in many respects. There's more to our story as a nation than just wandering in casually around the world and stealing resources.

For too long we've shied away from fixing the problems in our former colonies. With the exception of the Malayan Emergency and Sierra Leone when we did actually help, we've not exactly been interested in the problems in Uganda, in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, in South Africa. France, on the other hand, takes an active role in peacekeeping and mediation - just look at the immediate French intervention in Ivory Coast. If the same thing happened in Ghana, unlikely as it may be, I sincerely doubt we'd have the fleet deployed to try and restore peace. It is our responsibility - we did screw some parts of the world up, but let's help them to fix those problems and make amends for the past.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 9

iphonerules

Labour were the ones that caused all of our country's problems. Conservatives and specifically David Cameron are the ones that are going to fix things. David Cameron's support of students is why I voted Conservative!

Reply 10

tehFrance

In a way Britain did cause a fair few problems but he should not be blurting it out to the world!

Reply 11

mynameisq

He doesn't really give a flying servant's ass. He's just saying what the locals want to hear.

Reply 12

py0alb

It really goes without saying that an massive empire like the British Empire is going to be responsible for an awful lot of things, both good and bad.

Reply 13

silverbolt

Cameron stfu. To be short, stop butt kissing and handing out platitudes to these people to win some damned popularity contest.

Reply 14

ikoghoo

Obviously he's right, but saying it matters not.

Reply 15

Butane

Erm, yeah, because our former African colonies have been doing a fine job governing themselves, haven't they? They've only gone from having solid educational and healthcare systems provided by the British to having nothing but disease and corruption.

Reply 16

Aramiss18

Sucking up to the likes of Pakistan and that corrupt bunch...

Reply 17

Paul McCartney

He definitely shouldn't have said it out loud. Bad move, Sir. :frown:

Reply 18

IlexBlue

He's somewhat right.

I'm pretty sure the September 11th attacks happened because the hijackers were blinded by the light bouncing off his huge, shiny forehead.

Reply 19

Studentrepreneur

We played a role in many of the world's problems but it just isnt appropriate to bring it up for brownie points wherever you go.

Besides it isnt our fault they still cant pull it together. They worked better when we owned them and that's a fact.