by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL

Historian turned Labour MP Tristram Hunt will be speaking for the motion at our November 17 debate, ‘Britain’s former colonies should stop blaming the Empire for their ills’.

In an article for The Mirror he gives us a taste of what might be coming up. And it’s pretty convincing; criticizing David Cameron’s statement in April of this year, that Britain was responsible for “so many of the world’s problems”, asking whether we are really to blame for the current situation in Pakistan following continued border disputes over Kashmir.

Hunt also claims that ‘Hong Kong island might have remained a barren rock had it not been for the Royal Navy’, and that Britain, although it must admit wrongdoings, was a force for development and growth, allowing such nations to be a part of globalization. He also goes on to denounce the slave trade and greed of those in charge, and the struggle for liberty faced by many poorer members of the Commonwealth. ‘It is no longer good enough to blame Britain’, he says, ‘it is an easy get-out-of-jail card for failing and corrupt leaders to blame the last Empire’.

Hunt’s opponent in November, Tory MP Kwasi Kwarteng, provides the counter argument, His new book, Ghosts of Empire (due for publishing 2011), explains how many of the world’s trouble spots, such as Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, are those left behind by the chaotic retreat of empire, and claims that its ghosts continue to haunt international politics by the ‘inadequacies of its ideals and the short-termism of its actions’.

The debate will certainly throw out some controversial issues, and provide a truly historical view of many current world issues.

November 17, Cadogan Hall: tickets.