The Fall and Rise of the British Empire (Part 2)

By E. Hughes

In this 2nd article, I wish to look at how Britain’s decline as a world empire, effectively in the middle of the 20th century, was and has been in many cases a smokescreen for Britain’s continued economic domination of large parts of the globe, and how Britain itself to this very day exercises divisions and injustices that impoverish large sections of the British populace, both ethnic British and other ethnic minorities. And how tying all this together, and at its very heart, there is a moral vacuum at the heart of those who control mass wealth and power at all costs, even the cost of a peaceful world.

The reality of empire, both historically and at present, are so far from the rosy picture of a benign and benevolent undertaking, that an unlearned person might think they were discussing two completely different things. The reality of empire is power, and control of wealth and resources, always stacked unevenly and unjustly in favour of small groups of people. The story of the British Empire, now as well as then, is the story of how this power was and is wielded to create class and wealth divisions in Britain, and how these divisions were and are promoted around the world, in ‘superior’ white and ‘inferior’ natives and dark-skinned peoples of the world, all for an agenda of mass profit and wealth creation for a relative few, and the vastly unequal power relations such wealth creates, in Britain and the rest of the world. How these divisions are promoted, accepted, subtly held onto, and reinforced by supposedly benign British institutions like the Church of England, the Judiciary, the Armed Forces with their rigid class structures and so on. In the days of Empire on the global scene, it was a belief that the white man was superior, sensitive, intelligent and fit to govern, but in Britain itself, it was a class structure, again promoted as benign, that held sway; the effete middle and upper class gentleman holding wealth and power and exercising dominance over his social inferiors. Class and Race are still at the heart of a divided Britain, and a divided world. On these injustices were huge fortunes made, lands appropriated, empires carved out, colonies settled and wholesale destructions of cultures and ways of life.

It is easy to attack a structure because you are not part of it, or because you or your family and so forth never really benefited from these structures. But it is the moral issue that is at stake here; the morals surrounding slavery, plantation systems, factory systems, enclosure acts, criminalisation of those left out of the enormous wealth created by Britain for centuries. Yes, it may be an issue of envy, but it is also one of injustice heaped upon further injustices, and of institutions in Britain like the Judiciary and the established Church of England, who rather than speaking out compounded the guilt by being ineffectual, obscure and often mouthpieces for the power and injustices meted out. The heart of the myth is the fallacy of English fair play and justice. A mere glance at history, and at present day affairs shows there is only greed and naked self-interest, compounded with injustice and a lack of any real morals whatsoever. The real enemy is injustice.

In Mark Curtis’ eye-opening book ‘Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World’, the realities of British power and greed are encapsulated in factual chapters, which have been written after studying declassified information of Britain’s role in a number of global situations. This is truth, from the horse’s mouth so to speak, and it does not make particularly edifying reading. As well as his page by page dissection of well-spread lies by the British elite when tackling popular uprisings in Africa, British Guiana and many other places throughout the 20th century, he criticises the media, even the liberal, intellectual and so-called independent media and journalists, for largely ignoring the injustices sown by Britain. This speaks of a bigger picture, and of the class structures within Britain itself, where individuals have colluded and conspired to ignore unpalatable realities so long as they in some ways benefited. In present day terms, we might well ask why in Britain, at the heart of a modern democracy, there are vast gulfs of wealth disparity between rich and poor, and we might ask why a country awash with wealth and resources should become even more divided than poorer countries, with an immoral class system that remains basically unquestioned at this time.

Mark Curtis writes, in his aforementioned book: “The reality is that British governments bear significant responsibility for global poverty-not only as a former colonial power that shaped many of the current unjust structures, but in their championing of a world trade system and economic ideology that enriches the few and impoverishes many more…Yet I do not think I have ever seen a media article that mentions that Britain might in some way systematically contribute to poverty in the world. Is this not extraordinary?” Remarkable certainly, and extraordinary perhaps so, but somehow this tallies with everything anyone who merely wishes to be honest about the British Empire, and about the realities of empire; those of unequal power and wealth relations, and of little or no moral culpability or responsibility. The fuel of the British Empire was not coal or wool after all, but an incredible lack of concern for those trampled underfoot in the quest for bigger and bigger profits.

And just as Britain, like America, has traditionally backed right-wing dictators and right-wing monarchies and powers in other countries around the world, those regimes often denying even basic rights to the mass of their own people, so Britain has learnt these injustices well, and kept large amounts of British people in the dark, and in poor paying jobs, in run-down areas economically, whilst allowing other groups to prosper often unjustly at the expense of those who are politically, economically and socially oppressed. Sound familiar? I expect it does.

In Liverpool at this present time, one of the major ports at the height of Britain’s imperial power, the reality of wealth creation, and of British civilisation and British society is unveiling itself in ‘Regeneration’ and the much-touted ‘Capital of Culture’. Liverpool is a working class city, a town that, whilst a relative few made fortunes and good livings, has been a city traditionally poor, with low paying employment and few real prospects for the average citizen, both historically and at this time. The ball starts rolling when rich people can make more money, and most Liverpool people, those born-and-bred, and many more besides, see in Regeneration a cynical exercise in money making, and another gravy train for overpaid yuppies, consultants, city councillors, politicians and speculators of all kinds and of every hue. I have personally interviewed lots of people in the city centre who have said they are being sidelined, and basically booted out of the city to make way for overpriced restaurants and trendy wine bars, and higher paying rents. This is just another in the long phase of injustice meted out by British wealth and power. That of poor and ordinary people being sidelined to make some rich people even richer, and of all the injustice and hypocrisy that all this entails; low wage economies in the world’s 4th richest country, higher taxes for poor people, higher prices in Britain, an average wage in Liverpool of £9000 after the billions flooding in from Europe over the last decade and perhaps more. You may well ask why, in all of these capitalist speculations, a little more of the huge wealth floating around cannot be shared a little more fairly. And therein, in these questions, are answers to be found. They are uncomfortable answers, but true all the same, and they all point to greed, hypocrisy, injustice, breathtaking double-standards, corruption in places high and low and wilful immorality.

The aftermath of the British Empire can be seen clearly around the world, and in Britain itself, divided by unjust class and racist systems, and particularly in the ‘gold rush’ speculations of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture. It’s heart is empty, and its morals are non-existent.

To read the first part of this article CLICK HERE