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The British today are a wonderful people with a wonderful nation and with only a few exceptions (C Hitchens) produce wonderful famous folk. That being said, their history is loathesome. All too often their leaders took steps backwards rather than forwards in their mindless pursuit of profit. Greed was their god. the one in the bible never had a say in most of her decisions. The Irony as I see it is, yes Pat is mostly right in his analysis, but he is also an ardent free-market capitalist generally (his nationalistically driven protectionism aside) and it's that element that made the UKs history so dark and sorded.

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Sir; There is a reason why Britain got shed of Empire like France, and others. And I do not want to turn your green soul red; but read VI Lenin on the subject. Empires are expensive to maintain, but if a few individuals profit from them it is the people who bear the cost. Sure the locals are exploited and miserable, but the amount of profit that can be squeezed out of primitives is slight. On the other hand, the cost of defending and capitalizing and buying the products produced abroad actual results, in every case, in an acceleration of national wealth from poor to rich. We are paying in a multitude of ways for the oil we get, and it was cheaper before. They are paying in Iraq for our thirst for oil, but we are paying twice. We pay once for the strong arm that make the theft of oil possible, and we are paying higher prices because no one wants our money which is growing more worthless by the minute. And again, worhtless money to people on fixed income only means more wealth for the wealthy. Winston Churchill realized that the price of empire was too steep. It almost cost them their freedom, so survival without empire is better than extinction with empire. They were also going against yankee traders who wanted open shores to trade upon. And again, trade costs nothing so long as you have a product to sell. When people refuse your goods because they don't like you politics you have to send gunmen to them. And then the price becomes greater than the market can bear. Thanks.