Conservative cabinet minister Liam Fox now regrets sending that ignorant tweet [VIDEO]

Liam Fox
Support us and go ad-free

The Secretary of State for International Trade is being pilloried on Twitter for a tweet which would leave his history teacher red in the face.

The tweet heard around the world

A YouGov poll in 2014 found a fuzzy nostalgia for the empire among British voters. The poll found that 59% of voters thought the empire was “something to be proud of”. 49% thought nations occupied by Britain were better off for it. In response, the Conservative Party devised a strategy: a post-Brexit trade deal with African nations called ‘Empire 2.0‘.

No, that’s not an old joke from Yes Minister. It’s really happening.

This was compounded by the discovery of a past tweet by Fox, glossing over the atrocities committed by the empire.

Fox was clearly suffering from acute historical amnesia. And The Canary pointed this out at the time, giving the politician a crash course in colonial history. The Independent, meanwhile, was kind enough to release a video. It shows just five of the worst atrocities committed by the British Empire during the 20th century.

The reaction

On discovering the tweet, social media users were quick to remind Fox of how much history he had overlooked.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

Britain has contributed wonderful ideas and inventions to the world. And we can be proud of that. But these worthy achievements don’t erase the worst elements of our collective history. Because by any measure, the British Empire is up there with the most violent, brutal and oppressive regimes in world history.

The empire ran concentration camps in South Africa and Kenya in which British guards tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered detainees on an industrial scale. And countless millions starved during the 1943 Bengali famine, as the empire shipped India’s food stocks to Britain instead. The British Empire committed rape, torture, theft, murder, and mass execution around the world.

If a German politician showed nostalgia for the Third Reich, whitewashing the Holocaust out of its history, there would rightly be global outrage. And the worst crimes of the British Empire were no less bloody, racist or genocidal. There is no honour in ignorance.

Neither the British public, nor its Conservative government, should show such ignorance of our history.

Get Involved!

– See more international articles at The Canary Global.

– Visit our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up with our international coverage.

Support The Canary.

Featured image via Wikimedia

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us

Comments are closed