The British Empire died through its own follies as well as the conditions set upon it by the USA in return for war aid. Didn't know that? Roosevelt implemented conditions such as total independence for our colonies into every treaty we had with them. The American politicians wanted to see the Empire bleed itself dry. Roosevelt was not an ardent fan of Churchill and was lining up to do business with Stalin. Despite of the constant warnings his British "ally" sent to him, Roosevelt thought he could do bigger and better business with Russia. He thought there was a large market for selling American items to after the war. He never for one minute thought that the Soviets would tell America to p*ss off when asked to repay its war debt. It felt the same about Nationalist China. A huge market in which to do business and generate cash from for war aid. Again, this potential market said p*ss off when asked to repay for the aid it had. In fact, only one country ever repaid America. Britain.
Roosevelt died before seeing the consequences of his actions. The British Empire withered and died. However, it isn't such a bad thing. After all, we have the Commonwealth of Nations--a non-political body--that works for the betterment of all involved. It is such an institution I'd like to see succeed. Not the United States of Europe. Britain pays £40,000,000 a day to be a part of the EU. Every day. When it came to joining countries that we'd helped during the war, countries our people died for, I AM LOOKING AT YOU FRANCE, voted against us. Instead, France hopped into bed with Germany who previously it wanted to see brought to its knees and ruined after the war. The fact the Allies needed a strong West Germany is the only reason a democratic Germany emerged.
Please, don't take this a knee-jerk racism, what I am trying to say is that as a country we should learn to rely upon ourselves. Empire only created problems and fostered bad feelings. Places like the UN never seem to solve any problems, where something like the Commonwealth can lead by example. The main problem with Britain is that, presently, we care a lot about what happens to the people of other countries. We need only to impose minor laws to ensure real migrants reach us and not economic migrants. We need only enforce laws already in existence to get rid of false migrants instead of Labour granting them leave to remain every Christmas because they can't catch the illegals. Genuine migrants are suffering because false migrants have given them a bad reputation and governments like Labour do nothing solid to change that.
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales got devolution. Has it solved their ills? No. Hopefully they will see that England did not make the Hell we live in today, but make them more ready to stick with the United Kingdom--however wrongly it came about--to secure themselves and forge a shared future. As an English/Welsh man who lives in Scotland, I've seen the ugly side of this country. I've seen the ministers who constantly blame England [like Robert Mugabe does] every time some issue real or imagined happens. However, I have also seen that most of this country doesn't want that. It feels the Union is a good thing and ignores ministers who are only trying to sever that Union so they can claim bigger wages packets as they mirror every political institution that goes. If you think Scotland is not suffering from corruption, my friend look into the building of Holyrood. Scottish bad apples are the same as English bad apples, but by that same rule there are Scottish and English good eggs who DO want better things for both countries.
We need to wake up and ensure our moving forward as part of the Commonwealth. Let the Empire disappear. It was a rotten twig and we're better off without it.
Bon