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World Britain Empire Iraq refugees

No, the British Empire isn’t something to be proud of—in fact, it’s still causing harm today

From China to Iraq, we kid ourselves when we downplay the effects of Empire

By Daniel York Loh  
July 21, 2017

Iraqi refugees queue for food and water. The country was formed by British colonisers. Photo: PA

A recent YouGov poll revealed that 59 per cent of Britons think the Empire is something to be proud of. They also tend to think it left its colonies better off. A third would like it to still exist.

This is possibly not surprising. Many of the people asked for their opinions in that survey would probably agree that they don’t believe they’ve experienced any blights of the Empire directly. Indeed, it’s clear that many…

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Daniel York Loh

Daniel York Loh is an actor, writer and filmmaker. He has appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre and is one of 21 featured writers in the award-winning best-selling essay collection The Good Immigrant

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