Britain’s last imperialists
The core of the British state still believes it can lead by example
In the 1950s the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) became a fashionable cause among the who’s who of Britain. Public intellectuals from Bertrand Russell to J.B. Priestley argued forcefully that the country should unilaterally lay down the bomb. “Our bargaining power is slight,” wrote Priestley. “The force of our example might be great.” A.J.P. Taylor, the first celebrity historian and a fellow initials lover, was another supporter of this cause. It was, he later realised, a futile endeavour: “We thought that Great Britain was still a great power whose example would affect the rest of the world. Ironically, we were the last Imperialists.”
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The last imperialists ”
Britain October 12th 2024
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