By far the most important legacy left by the defunct British Empire is that it left behind millions upon millions of people, spread all over the world, who were trained to think Brit.
Their clothes, their furniture,their very lifestyle was, and in many cases still is, based on the British concept of style, of correctness.
And when they purchased goods, machinery, cars, even war equipment, it was almost automatically from Britain. A Britain whose language was as instinctive to them as their own, a Britain who supplied instructions, maintenance schedules and spare parts catalogues using a language and measurement system that had become second nature to them.
And thank goodness for it.
For the blunt truth is that for year upon relentless year following the end of WW2, the stuff we Brits attempted to foist on the rest of the world, was rubbish.
Sometimes quite incredible rubbish
Burned in my memory is the sight that greeted us, year after year, whenever our ship docked in Latakia, the main port of Syria. Prominently displayed was a pile of large wooden crates festooned in huge red letters with the legend 'YET ANOTHER REJECTED BRITISH EXPORT'.
Placed there for all the trading ships of the world to see. And smirk over.
We were notorious for late delivery, of faulty design, of poor workmanship and the almost inevitable breakdown of components..
It was a situation that could not be allowed to carry on, for we are above all else a nation of traders, buyers and sellers of goods and services.
And,once again, thank goodness it has not.
For we are entering upon a world which will be dominated, overwhelmed,by the increasingly wealthy and powerful nations of the Pacific Rim, China, the South Americas.
It is their culture, their way of life that will dominate the world for the next centuries, just as the United States has done till now.
And if we, perched on our tiny off-shore scrap of clay and rock, are not to be overwhelmed, to be reduced to a third world country unable to compete in price or quality or style, we need to plug away with every speck of the industry and inventivness and downright British go-get we can muster.
Yet it is at this point of massive threat that a bunch of small-time politicians, wants to split us in two
.What will it matter, think you, if Scotland is better or worse off without the English, when our Islands as a whole have been reduced to the sort of world status and influence we now accord one of the lesser African states?
Perhaps, though you think that will never happen. That the power we have wallowed in for the last two or three centuries is for some God-granted reason, eternal.
If so, dream your dream whilst you may. Your Great grandchildren will not be granted the chance.
Last three letters contd - 2026
Sometimes it’s just the small things that press the bruise isn’t it? 😢
