sunday december 24 2017 bloody new battle of british
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12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 1/27
Bloody new battle of British Empireas 60 dons write open letter to NigelBiggarA heated academic row over colonialism has led to allegations of bullying
Damian Whitworth
December 23 2017, 12:01am, The Times
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 2/27
Colonial acts, such as Captain Cook taking New South Wales, were not all bad and should be discussed, says Nigel Biggar, but
many of his colleagues disagree
ANN RONAN PICTURES/PRINT COLLECTOR/GETTY IMAGES
The American professor who triggered an academic dispute over Britain’s colonial
past has accused “petulant and entitled” Oxford academics of running an “anti-
colonial intellectual racket”.
Almost 60 dons, most of them historians, wrote an open letter to Nigel Biggar,
regius professor of moral and pastoral theology at Oxford, denouncing his work
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sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
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and his support for Bruce Gilley, who wrote a paper entitled “The case for
colonialism”.
The paper was withdrawn from the journal Third World Quarterly after threats of
violence against the editor.
Professor Biggar wrote an article in The Times headlined “Don’t feel guilty about
our colonial history” in which he said that Professor Gilley was courageous for
calling for a balanced reappraisal of the colonial past.
In their letter the dons said that they would not participate in Professor Biggar’s
project on ethics and empire.
“The haughty response of the various Oxford tutors and graduate students to
Professor Biggar shows just how little debate there has been on colonialism over
the last half century,” Professor Gilley said. “These insular academics have been
talking to one another for so long that they are startled that not everyone shares
their views.”
Professor Gilley, 51, a political scientist at Portland State University, said that the
open letter to Professor Biggar contained “ridiculous critiques” by his colleagues
“which show how unable they are to grapple with di�cult questions of public
sunday december 24 2017
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12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
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Nigel Biggar wrote an article inThe Times headlined “Don’t feelguilty about our colonial history”TOM PILSTON FOR THE TIMES
policy. Are they seriously arguing that the 379 killed by an irritable British colonel
at Amritsar outweighed the British-led elimination of slave trading?
“Intellectuals, whether poets or dons, do not always represent common sense. The
petulant and entitled tone of the letter by the gowns shows how mortified they are
by the prospect that the anti-colonial intellectual racket that they have been
running for half a century is finally being busted up. Thank goodness we still have
a free society that allows these bubbles to be burst.”
After some students called Professor Biggar bigoted a university spokesman
defended his work and his right to freedom of speech. However, other academics
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
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then wrote the open letter saying that his approach was “too polemical and
simplistic to be taken seriously”.
In an interview at his lodgings in Tom Quad at the heart of Christ Church, it was
clear that the row had shocked him. “I have grown a thicker skin, being an ethicist
but I am not someone who doesn’t doubt himself. When I hear that 60 colleagues
have sent a public letter I think, ‘Oh God, maybe they’re right,’ although normally I
read these things and I think ‘No they’re wrong,’ ” he said.
He knows some of the 60, including one whose o�ce is across the street from his.
“It’s emotionally quite stressful. If you are in the same institution and you have a
disagreement, pick up the phone, send me an email, knock on my door. But for 60
colleagues to sign a public letter — a pretty scathing account of me and my project
— it doesn’t do much for trust. It shouldn’t be your first recourse in trying to
negotiate a disagreement. I feel alienated by it and I feel angry about it.
“It feels to me, on the receiving end of it, [like] bullying. And what does this tell
their students about how to behave if they don’t like something? It’s a debate
between 60 and one. It feels like an attack, it doesn’t feel like an invitation to
conversation.”
The letter criticised the agenda of Professor Biggar’s five-year project of invitation-
only workshops on di�erent empires. “I assume that the agenda they object to is
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 6/27
my starting point that I think empire can mean all sorts of di�erent things ranging
from presiding over the extermination of Aborigines in Australia to the
suppression of the slave trade across the Atlantic and in Africa for over 100 years,
to the fight against fascism in 1940 onwards. I am simply not willing to start where
I think a lot of these academics want me to start.”
He said that the writers of the letter misrepresented his positions to put up “straw
men” to attack. “Nowhere have I argued that the sins of empire are outweighed by
its benefits; I have merely made the point that empire is morally complex and
ambiguous.”
At least one of the signatories of the letter attacking him was involved in the
Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which failed to persuade Oriel College to remove a
statue of Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist who founded Rhodesia.
The letter said that Professor Biggar’s views “reinforce a pervasive sense that
contemporary inequalities in access to and experience at our university are
underpinned by a complacent, even celebratory attitude towards its imperial past.”
To which Professor Biggar says: “In so far as I have admitted many times the
imperial past involved gross atrocities I am not complacent. Am I celebratory? Yes
of some bits. I am proud we suppressed the slave trade.” He says that the open
letter is “not terribly coherent. Are they saying that a project that is willing to
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 7/27
Bruce Gilley says that many academicscannot grasp difficult questions
acknowledge the good that was done under colonial rule somehow makes non-
white students and professors feel oppressed?
“The way the British view their empire should be a balanced and moderate one and
we should recognise the good things as well as the bad in a way that readers of The
Guardian generally wouldn’t. Am I saying we should try and do it again? No.”
In his article Professor Gilley argued for small new colonies on the coastlines of
Africa and the Middle East. Professor Biggar, 62, said that this suggestion of a
programme of “recolonisation” was “deliberately provocative”. He is a former
chaplain at Oriel College and combines his academic work with his role as a priest
at Christ Church Cathedral and intends to invite Professor Gilley to Oxford. “I
think a lot of people would be interested in hearing him.”
However, he fears that students would try to disrupt a
meeting. “The probability is I would not hold a public
meeting, I would hold it in secret or private and
therefore the wider public would not have the
opportunity to learn. It is a practical certainty we could
expect hostile students to try and disrupt the meeting.
They have done that with college meetings in the past
five years. Freedom of speech behind closed doors is
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 8/27
fine, freedom of speech in public is not so securely supported.”
He says that some of his colleagues are not instilling in students an understanding
that people with di�erent opinions should be heard. “We can all shout and stamp
but people ought to be taught to disagree in a more rational fashion and clearly not
all our students have been taught that.” Professor Gilley said he had no plans to
visit Oxford.
Professor Biggar is worried that colleagues may be deterred from participating in
his ethics and empire project. “There will be peer pressure in certain circles not to
take part in this. Some colleagues who might have taken part now will be nervous.
That’s a loss.”
Education
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sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 9/27
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Fullpelt 18 hours ago
Argument over British imperialism is nothing new, eg. the term 'Little Englanders' originally
referred to anti-imperialists in the 19th century. When I was a history student about 60 years
ago, the Suez debacle was still fresh in the mind (a final fling at empire according to some),
which raised passions for and against Britain's claims as a world power.
66 comments
+ Follow Post comment
NIGEL BIGGAR
Here’s my reply to those who condemn my
project on ethics and empire
Nigel Biggar
On Wednesday some members of Oxford
University’s history faculty published an open letter
condemning the project on Ethics & Empire that I
lead.
December 23 2017
NIGEL BIGGAR
Don’t feel guilty about our colonial
history
Nigel Biggar
‘For the last 100 years, western colonialism has had a
bad name. It is high time to question this
orthodoxy.” So opens “The Case for Colonialism”...
November 30 2017
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 10/27
tsodade 21 hours ago
Virtually all my professors had contributed to the war e�ort in 1939-45. Some had worked in
secretive government departments, others had served in the forces - two had won the MC,
one was captured in Crete and another (Dutch, not British) was in a forced labour camp in
occupied Holland.
In fact, they had all helped to defend the British Empire. Listen to the newsreel commentaries
of the time. Reports of operations often began with the words, 'British and Empire troops
......', reflecting the make-up of Allied forces.
But despite their personal experience, perhaps because of it, my professors had varying
interpretations of the history of the British Empire. A few were either pro or anti empire, but
most were much more ambivalent - undecided, you might say.
I suspect it's the same now. British imperial history was complex, and most historians have
nuanced views because they've studied the detail. This doesn't suit newspapers and some
commentators who like to see opinions expressed as a simple 'good' or 'bad'.
Recommend Reply
Reading the comments to this article it fills me with a deep sadness at the lack of objective
and critical reasoning shown by the vast number of commenters who seem to have taken
their positions based on free speech and pro empire. what about the views you seek to
support?
It would be interesting to see how many had taken the time to locate the original article by
Bruce Gilley - The case for colonialism, that Professor Biggar sought to promote, I have
included a link here.
https://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Case-for-Colonialism-Third-
World-Quarterly-Bruce-Gilley.pdf
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 11/27
Our man in Bristol 1 day ago
You are entitled to your opinions but a bit of research would help inform these views, also the
article was not withdrawn due to threats of violence but on grounds of academic rigor, again 5
minutes on the internet, maybe the 58 academic dons had read the article and had good
reason to be critical of Professor Biggar.
The true motivators for empire building are namely, belief in one races superiority and a
desire to exploit, as a child of the empire, I can assure you there is no nostalgia for the empire
and the consequences are still being felt today – anyone been to Libya recently.
1 Recommend Reply
modo 21 hours ago
@tsodade That missing apostrophe - '... one races (sic) superiority...' has a really
negative e�ect on your argument. Perhaps unfortunately, most serious participants
in this debate would dismiss your ideas out of hand, instantly, as a result.
Recommend Reply
“The way the British view their empire should be a balanced and moderate one and we
should recognise the good things as well as the bad in a way that readers of The Guardian
generally wouldn’t”.
I am not sure that, “in a way that readers of The Guardian generally wouldn’t” is true.
Comments in the Guardian generally seem to me to reflect a wide range of points of view.
Why does the professor think the opposite? Has he, perhaps, prejudged ‘Guardian readers’
based on his impression of what he thinks Guardian readers would be like?
2 Recommend Reply
anitawales123 23 hours ago
@Our man in Bristol
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 12/27
j h 1 day ago
Perhaps not so much Guardian readers, but it's safe to say that Professor Biggar
would be Billy-no-mates in the tea room at Guardian Towers.
3 Recommend Reply
Scorpio 22 hours ago
@anitawales123
If you actually look into the history of The Guardian and plus the progenitor of the
Manchester Observor and the Peterloo Massacre then CP Scott... it all looks on paper
a respectable "Liberal endeavour".
A larger tragedy now that it has morphed into a "socialist tabloid" over the decades
under the Scott Trust, housing such so called talent as Owen Jones ill informed
journalism, such as this recent example.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/21/tory-britain-solidarity-
thatcherite-individualism
Pure left wing propaganda masquerading as an authentic professional viewpoint.
Finally remember "comment is free" as long as the Scott Trust agrees with it!
The original vision of a "new liberalism" has been corrupted by and insidious branch
of "proto-socialism" and overt cultural Marxism in a dangerous cocktail of printed
and brainwashing collectivism.
Any objective individual is aware of the faults of "The Guardian".
7 Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 13/27
j h 1 day ago
Woodburner 1 day ago
Findlay Niederle 1 day ago
People who issue death threats must be jailed for a very long time. It can't be that hard totrack them down.
1 Recommend Reply
Keith in Cambridge 21 hours ago
@j h Actually most "death threats" happen to fall within the definition but many areno more than throwaway lines written on the spur of the moment will the fullintention of being crassly abusive, but with no intention at all of following up on thatabuse with action.
Recommend Reply
Sounds like they're all a bit brainwashed to be frank.
3 Recommend Reply
Where would India be today if the" colonialist British" had not built the railways, theMaharajas certainly would not have built them, today they can't even maintain them ,look atthe number of serious crashes they have each year
5 Recommend Reply
Academia is now socialist and therefore has to present a united front against any truth that isnot pravda. The communising of education was infiltrated into Britain and has taken twogenerations but is now totally successful in that any free thinker departing from the partyview is to be struck o� if not eliminated or sent to Coventry or Wales.It is indicative that we never hear of the Italian empire, the Belgian empire, the Chineseempire or the Soviet empire, which were uniformly horrendous, only the British empire,
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 14/27
which was the civilizing force that turned the British Empire into a potentially modern and
vibrant area, the choice of whether this happened or not (compare Kenya with Zimbabwe)
being wholly in the hands of the local successors.
Having spent a considerable time in both West Africa and East Africa shortly after
independence I can state that locals never once told me how bad the British had been, only
that they wanted to govern themselves, warts and all, which seemed a most reasonable idea.
The criticism of the British has come mainly from opposition politicians in the ex-colonies
and the Soviet sponsored academics seeded into British universities and schools. Talking
about Russian interference in British, or even American elections while ignoring this huge
take-over by communism is risible and terminally stupid. Pended at 16:55.
18 Recommend Reply
Jasper 23 hours ago
@Findlay Niederle Well said! I had hoped that dons would encourage debate & accept
that opinions vary. To seek agreement on something that has happened well before
our births should be a key part to any process of education.
It does seem that academics have become so damned arrogant to a degree where
they are now enforcing their beliefs on students rather than seeking debate. This is a
socialism / extremism of views that defies logic & reason. Academics are often
surrounded by an entrenched view of life within their own world of academy - their
broader personal experiences of the world are limited if indeed they exist.
As has been indicated by this 'comment', history has two fundamental sides -
accuracy & inaccuracy. Empires were the manner by which powerful states gained
benefits. I would o�er the point that no Empire provide a Utopian way of life,
though Britain & the British Empire was generally better than that of Spain, Portugal,
France, Germany, Russia / USSR, the Netherlands, Belgium & others. Yes, the British
Empire had bad, through to abominable incidents & behaviour but from all of that
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 15/27
anitawales123 1 day ago
MCGibbo 1 day ago
history it was only the British Empire that has evolved into the Commonwealth - soall must not have been so bloody & horrific. The dons who wrote the letter, which I have not read, need to look at themselves inthe mirror & consider whether their earlier mentors & their predecessors behaved ina similar extreme manner - somehow, I very much doubt it!
6 Recommend Reply
'He says (Professor Gilley) that some of his colleagues are not instilling in students anunderstanding that people with di�erent opinions should be heard. “We can all shout andstamp but people ought to be taught to disagree in a more rational fashion and clearly not allour students have been taught that.''' This is one of the most profoundly sad statements I have ever read regarding our academicinstitutions. And at Oxford, no less. The (no doubt very highly paid) Vice Chancellor of thisinstitution, and others, need to get to grips with this intolerant and deeply malevolent virusof 'no-platforming' and witch-hunting that has infected our universities. The 60 so-called academics that sent the letter should be deeply ashamed, and questionwhether they are educators, or brain-washing bear baiters who are vain enough, and stupidenough to think that popular opinion will condone their behaviour.
14 Recommend Reply
Demolish Bath! Dig up Old North Road!
2 Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 16/27
Jon Woolery 1 day ago
M'Iomhair 1 day ago
James Stephens 1 day ago
Scorpio 1 day ago
A good number of us Americans some years back took up arms against the UK over some of
its policies, but we’re su�ciently savvy to recognize there had been some positive e�ects of
British colonialism. May those 60 academic snoots get their just deserts: Ridicule.
16 Recommend Reply
in the late 1980s-early 90s when i did my 1st degree in history, the history of imperialism was
always taught in a balanced way. We were expected to debate the pros and cons of
colonialism.
Nobody (except one American who lauded the US's south-and- westward expansion) came
away being pro-imperialism, but we had a much more nuanced view than those who didn't
study History.
I feel deeply sad that the study of this discipline has taken on a Soviet style programme of
forced interpretation and denunciation. And that it must be scholars of my generation who
are behind it.
13 Recommend Reply
The Left don't like it up 'em!
I suggest they tune to ITV3 in ten minutes, Carry on up the Khyber is on.
3 Recommend Reply
"The paper was withdrawn from the journal Third World Quarterly after threats of violence
against the editor."
An "utter disgrace" on both counts the "threat" and the "withdrawal" itself.
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 17/27
Iain Sanders 1 day ago
Radlon 1 day ago
CM 1 day ago
This modus operandi is disturbingly familiar, first outrage, then slander in an attempt todestroy an individual's academic reputation usually attempting to ascend a moral highground through the use of the word "bigot", then as in this case as Professor Bigger has stoodhis ground with merit, violence and the hint of expulsion or ostracisation when this does notresult in the outcome they seek. Equality through domination is not any form of equality at all. These "so called academics" refuse to engage in debate, discourse, or engagement, they are adisgrace to the academic community and to the University of Oxford itself.
18 Recommend Reply
It was the British Empire that fought the empires of the Kaiser, Hitler and the JapaneseEmpire.
15 Recommend Reply
How many people were murdered on the orders of the former President of Zimbabwe andhis then Deputy the President of Zimbabwe? 20,000 or more? Clearly a liberation fromcolonial oppression the 'Oxford Academics' prefer to ignore.
15 Recommend Reply
The Left captures the institutions. The institutions decline and are despised. There's still timeto save yourself, Oxford. You need to champion free speech and the likes of Biggar or die,despised and unmourned. Because you are publicly funded, and the public will not toleratebeing lectured and despised by these left wing fools forever.
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 18/27
Mr Peter Cuthbertson 1 day ago
Peter Hurley 1 day ago
Rehan 1 day ago
Jonathan Gumery 1 day ago
18 Recommend Reply
How sad it is that at Oxford University, one of the world’s foremost institutions for learning,there is fear that students would prevent free speech and debate by the ignorance ofdisruption. I was a student once and one of the everlasting benefits was debate with otherswith whose views I disagreed. It opens minds. Those who fail to understand this should notbe at any university and particularly not the most prestigious. They may have the entrancequalifications but not the maturity and the latter is as important as the former.
10 Recommend Reply
A perfect illustration of how political correctness has imbued academia to its very core, suchthat free debate is no longer tolerated.
7 Recommend Reply
“Nowhere have I argued that the sins of empire are outweighed by its benefits; I have merelymade the point that empire is morally complex and ambiguous.” It is seriously disturbing, especially in an elite academic context, that there are people whoclearly don't understand this.
17 Recommend Reply
Best empire ever.
9 Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 19/27
Geoff L 1 day ago
JournoList 1 day ago
@Jonathan Gumery So far.
Recommend Reply
It hardly any wonder that our current crop of uni students are snowflakes looking always for
a safe place and no platforming those that do not fall into their personal idea of how the
world is, when we have a bunch of lightweight, snowflake, so-called called history professors,
who have no real idea of the the British Empire, and what it was about.
Britain had the largest ever trading bloc. Moving goods and services around the world. In the
proccess developing undeveloped countries, bringing wealth and civilisation to many.
The most of the world's laws are spread around many parts of the world due to GB's
expansionism.
Prof. Biggar's ideas and views are very sound and should be investigated further not slated
and dismissed by a bunch of very unworldly academics. Disagreements should be proved or
disproved by research and be debated, not aired in open letters. To gang up in such a way is
rank cowardice and shows disrespect.
British rule around the world was generally a force for good. Occasionally something went
wrong, but when doesn't it. Looking at the state of some of our ex-colonies, it may be a good
arguement to re-colonise them.
9 Recommend Reply
Michael Gibbs 1 day ago
@Geo� L
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 20/27
JournoList 1 day ago
Gladius 1 day ago
James Murdoch 1 day ago
Nigel West 1 day ago
A balanced view and one I, mostly, totally agree with.
2 Recommend Reply
I can o�er unfurnished safe space at a reasonable rent to qualified applicants.The current hoo-ha seems to be the result of failing to appreciate just what a mistake it wasto limit the current admission to just 50%. It's only when the other 50% of the school-leavingcohort are poured into the Uni machine that we will appreciate just how progressiveAcademia is.
1 Recommend Reply
This is what happens when censorship and intolerance from the left is allowed to live in ouruniversities. God only knows what this lot are doing to the young minds who they have suchinfluence over.
13 Recommend Reply
I wonder what those same Dons have to say about the former Soviet Empire?Probably the same as Corbyn I suspect.
7 Recommend Reply
I was in general agreement until the sentence"The way the British view their empire shouldbe a balanced and moderate one and we should recognise the good things as well as the badin a way that readers of The Guardian generally wouldn’t." If that is the level of bigoteddebate he wishes to engage in then I am not surprised that his colleagues find him 'polemical'rather than academically creditable.
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 21/27
Wombat 1 day ago
I read The Guardian and The Times, plus parts of a number of foreign newspapers. I value
the balanced journalism that one or two provide and the biased view promulgated by others
(which illuminate my understanding of others).
Incidentally, his reliance on 'common sense' as a justification for his views would suggest that
he should attend some ethics classes himself.
5 Recommend Reply
Charles Atkinson 1 day ago
modo 1 day ago
@Nigel West So ethics now trumps common sense, so where does enlightenment
come from? From Political Correctness and delivered by the Common Purpose?
3 Recommend Reply
@Nigel West Good post. I don't know enough to judge whether Nigel Biggar is a bigot
or not. As you point out, his characterisation of Guardian readers certainly suggests
that he may well be.
However I'm stunned at the irony of the 60 dons attacking him on the grounds of his
being too polemical!
3 Recommend Reply
A cousin of mine was in Uganda teaching in the time of Idi Amin. An old man said to him
that when the British were there if there was a murder in a village the police arrived,
everyone was interviewed, the loss of a single life was taken seriously. The old man
contrasted that with Uganda under Amin, with bodies floating down the rivers, people shot
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 22/27
Ihatearmchairexperts 1 day ago
Atticus 1 day ago
John Adsett 1 day ago
on a whim for approaching a policemen etc. etc. and no one said anything because now life
was cheap.
32 Recommend Reply
Some people in failed states, such as Aden Colony, have called for the British to return and
bring with them the successful governance and economic prosperity that they once had.
Others who remember the fight for independence are adamant that it was the right thing to
do despite the failures of their own subsequent Governments.
This demonstrates that the colonised themselves are in two minds about the pros and cons of
empire!
16 Recommend Reply
JournoList 1 day ago
@Ihatearmchairexperts MoTD today: Qatar v. Yemen AFC: Gulf Cup Of Nations
Group Stage
Recommend Reply
To quote George Orwell, “Who controls the present controls the past".
12 Recommend Reply
Isn't "debate" the one of the main purposes of academic life?
15 Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 23/27
Lightfoot 1 day ago
J McGill 1 day ago
Jon Woolery 21 hours ago
@John Adsett
Only the victors get to write history.
1 Recommend Reply
Keith in Cambridge 1 day ago
@J McGill That used to be a sound adage. But today with the internet, the
vanquished have the opportunity to state their case.
2 Recommend Reply
@John Adsett
Debate certainly is not part of academic life here in the USA, except when both side
argue the leftist line.
Recommend Reply
The British colonies and the Empire were a necessity for British growth and survival. They
were part of national and human development. Since the first man picked up a stick to fight
with, territorial expansion has existed as a means of human survival. Britain was subjected to
invasion and conquest many times. We, today, benefit from those parts of our history.
Today we seem to have created a part of Society that feels compelled to decry our past
because it does not match their idea of what is acceptable today. Those people have a naivety
that is dangerous and one that could ultimately leave us defenceless in a world where the
desire for conquest and expansion still exist.
The world is not a nice place but thanks to our Armed Forces fighting o� our shores, it feels
safe at home. The terrorist attacks we see today are kept to a minimum because of our
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 24/27
Peter Hobday 1 day ago
military, intelligence and police activity internationally. Even today we draw uponrelationships forged under Empire to protect ourselves and to exert influence. The case for Empire can be made and any academic who says otherwise is in denial and theoppressive attitude exerted against this work is illustrative of the worst kind of 'communist'or 'fascist' attitude that you can only discuss that which is allowed; or is it a trait of Empire,the supercilious belief that they are right and must exert their views on everyone.
42 Recommend Reply
Jenesaisquoi 1 day ago
KGS 1 day ago
@Lightfoot re your last parag - the emergence of the PC Empire - I hope thosesupporting and expanding it see the irony of their actions!
6 Recommend Reply
@Lightfoot Excellent post.
6 Recommend Reply
Michael Gibbs 1 day ago
@KGS @Lightfoot
Totally agree.
Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 25/27
Show More Comments
Biggar is right -- this is a complex issue. My usual approach is to ask those involved. In this
case, it would be the descendents of those in the ex-colonies, as families pass down their
attitudes.
In British ex-colonies (this does not include Ireland) I generally find positive and friendly
attitudes towards the Brits. In those countries colonised for example, by the Spanish,
attitudes are negative. I have seen a History professor quickly bringing his audience to anger
when discussing the Spanish colonisation of Latin America.
17 Recommend Reply
D C 1 day ago
Keith in Cambridge 1 day ago
As someone born and bred in an 'ex-colony', I can only concur with your comments. I
would also add though, that whereever in the world there is a stable democracy and
the rule of law, outside of Europe, Britain has been.
4 Recommend Reply
@Peter Hobday If the behaviour of earlier generations of our people was such a
contemptible thing, why are millions today throwing all their resources into living
among us?
4 Recommend Reply
Peter Hobday 21 hours ago
Exactly. We are basically fair guys it seems.
Recommend Reply
sunday december 24 2017
12/24/2017 Bloody new battle of British Empire as 60 dons write open letter to Nigel Biggar | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloody-new-battle-of-british-empire-as-60-dons-write-open-letter-to-nigel-biggar-kzj8gvhx3 26/27
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