Labour plans to teach British Empire injustice in schools

[Baron von Lotsov]

Desperate Dan was an American cowboy-based character, and Dennis was a street urchin.  Both may show where your hero worship lies, but neither of them were idolised for biffing the Hun.

On the Roman bit, can't say there's too many ex-centurions, or their fans, still bemoaning their state's loss of influence after its decline and fall...

What about Punch and Judy?



Don't you realise Beano is like a kind of British institution? It started in 1938 and is still going. They won! They won the most important game of the lot: the market.



You seem to be blind to talent. It's like you file it somewhere but never have anything complimentary to say.

[Churchill]

I was a Cub and then a Scout the days when you were allowed to carry a sheath knife in public and play with your woggle as much as you liked on a Friday night



We used to catch Sticklebacks and Minnows in old Jam Jars with stale bread inside when the fish swam in pull the jar out the water, then use them for bait to catch Pike , six decades later I still go fishing love it.

[T00ts]

Ballet!!! Oh no we'd have been drummed out of boys brigade a band with all the musical skills  that girl has announcing the dragon on the John Lewis Christmas advert  ::



No we were a scruffy bunch of oiks,we used to salvage old stockings that had developed ladders cut the end off and use wire coat hanger to fashion a net on an old garden cane and go stickleback fishing,,balloon water bombs were good too any kids mums old discarded purse stuffed with paper and left lying on the pavement attached to black cotton us hidden in a nearby bush ready to pull it out of reach of anyone who thought it was their lucky day.

No you're right I would have been a fish out of water with that bunch.  :dncg:

[cromwell]

Oh my! I was always a bit envious of the kids that could go to the pictures on Saturday mornings. I didn't realise it was so ....damp...  I always had a morning of ballet classes back to back til lunchtime.

Ballet!!! Oh no we'd have been drummed out of boys brigade a band with all the musical skills  that girl has announcing the dragon on the John Lewis Christmas advert  ::



No we were a scruffy bunch of oiks,we used to salvage old stockings that had developed ladders cut the end off and use wire coat hanger to fashion a net on an old garden cane and go stickleback fishing,,balloon water bombs were good too any kids mums old discarded purse stuffed with paper and left lying on the pavement attached to black cotton us hidden in a nearby bush ready to pull it out of reach of anyone who thought it was their lucky day.

[T00ts]

::  Yes I remember those days Saturday mornings and the organ playing  "we are the minors of the abc" now we really were oppressed, poor working class kids paid sixpence to sit in the stalls to watch Flash Gordon zoom across  the screen in a toy spaceship with a lit sparkler in its rear end,meanwhile the posh kids lorded it in the circle (paid nine pence or was it a shilling?) dropping various bits of rubbish down on your head and worse still peed over the balcony.

Still to this day never had an apology for that oppression and being robbed of my childhood,I think there should be a documentary made about it,a history book and statements made in parliament someone should be made to pay. :roll:  

Oh my! I was always a bit envious of the kids that could go to the pictures on Saturday mornings. I didn't realise it was so ....damp...  I always had a morning of ballet classes back to back til lunchtime.

[cromwell]

::



And what about the stereotyping in the black and white cowboy films shown at the Saturday morning pictures, to identify which gang was which all the good cowboys wore white hats and the bad cowboys black hats.



10 minutes later  Flash Gordon was blowing the shite out of the Mud Men a minority group greatly misunderstood and oppressed

 ::  Yes I remember those days Saturday mornings and the organ playing  "we are the minors of the abc" now we really were oppressed, poor working class kids paid sixpence to sit in the stalls to watch Flash Gordon zoom across  the screen in a toy spaceship with a lit sparkler in its rear end,meanwhile the posh kids lorded it in the circle (paid nine pence or was it a shilling?) dropping various bits of rubbish down on your head and worse still peed over the balcony.

Still to this day never had an apology for that oppression and being robbed of my childhood,I think there should be a documentary made about it,a history book and statements made in parliament someone should be made to pay. :roll:  

[Churchill]

What I want to know is when a PM will stand up and apologise for how nasty and racist we were and apologise to the Mekon and all green people,thinking about it though I don't recall those greens singing "whose planet? Our planet" in the eagle.

 ::



And what about the stereotyping in the black and white cowboy films shown at the Saturday morning pictures, to identify which gang was which all the good cowboys wore white hats and the bad cowboys black hats.



10 minutes later  Flash Gordon was blowing the shite out of the Mud Men a minority group greatly misunderstood and oppressed

[Borchester]

Asterisk ? No he was the Gaul I have forgotten, Errm Adrian the Barbarian

Blimey. Adrian the Barbarian. The Beezer and Topper. I had forgotten about them.



 

[Churchill]

Asterisk ? No he was the Gaul I have forgotten, Errm Adrian the Barbarian

[Borchester]

Desperate Dan was an American cowboy-based character, and Dennis was a street urchin.  Both may show where your hero worship lies, but neither of them were idolised for biffing the Hun.

That was Battler Briton in (I think) the Sun

On the Roman bit, can't say there's too many ex-centurions, or their fans, still bemoaning their state's loss of influence after its decline and fall...

There was an ancient Brit who was always fighting the Romans. Blowed if I can recall his name. But there was a Scottish lad called Wild Young Dirky who appeared in the Dandy, lived in the highlands and was always having a go at the redcoats.



Happy days

[cromwell]

I liked Dan Dares battle with the nasty Mekon, the small WW2 illustrated books 6d each

What I want to know is when a PM will stand up and apologise for how nasty and racist we were and apologise to the Mekon and all green people,thinking about it though I don't recall those greens singing "whose planet? Our planet" in the eagle.

[Churchill]

I liked Dan Dares battle with the nasty Mekon, the small WW2 illustrated books 6d each

[patman post]

Pat, you forgot the Beano, I used to love reading all that imperialist stuff like Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace.  ::



Oh, and whilst you are reminiscing on the good times, I'm still trying to get over the damage the Roman empire did to this country - and not a sniff of an apology from Rome! I'm still waiting.  :brd:

Desperate Dan was an American cowboy-based character, and Dennis was a street urchin.  Both may show where your hero worship lies, but neither of them were idolised for biffing the Hun.

On the Roman bit, can't say there's too many ex-centurions, or their fans, still bemoaning their state's loss of influence after its decline and fall...

[Barry]

The problem is that most older indigenous British people have been subject to, and indoctrinated by, systemised education formulated in the 1880s and carried through (almost without modification) until the 1970s. The jingoistic induced Pride in Empire was forced into young minds — rather like army square bashing and other military drills — to stifle questioning of detail by swamping with tales of (white British ) derring do. This self-perpetuating indoctrination spawned (and was helped by) Biggles, Dan Dare, Sherlock Holmes, and other boys' heroes in the pages of Hornet, Hotspur, Rover, Skipper, Victor, Wizard, etc, which (together with the Anglican Church) carried their misplaced pride through into adulthood.

It's only since Britain had its Empire wrested away from it and had to treat with former subjugated colonies on a basis of equality, that the enlightened among its establishment influencers and  leaders been forced to confront the many myths of its greatness and re-evaluate what it tells itself in its now diminished status...

Pat, you forgot the Beano, I used to love reading all that imperialist stuff like Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace.  ::



Oh, and whilst you are reminiscing on the good times, I'm still trying to get over the damage the Roman empire did to this country - and not a sniff of an apology from Rome! I'm still waiting.  :brd:

[Ciaphas]

Why? Do you have kids? Why would anyone want to instil guilt in young people for actions of those hundreds of years ago at a time when they knew no better? Why when our kids are worried enough already about the future, do we need to burden them even further with needless indoctrination just to salve the national conscience? What will it achieve? Will it stop war? Will it stop other countries seeking power over their neighbours or will it go some way into reducing our kids and future adults into quivering wrecks? Hind sight is a great thing but absolutely pointless now.

For goodness sake let's get some common sense.

It's about awareness not guilt though I understand that for those whose identity is heavily based on their nationality will feel uncomfortable when the less glorious parts of their countries come under the spotlight.



Have you been to Berlin? It's well worth visiting if only to visit the Topography of Terror which charts the rise and fall of Nazism and terrible events which occured. I'm not suggesting we build museums but it's laudable that Germany doesn't seek to bury its past.



You say we have nothing to learn from our past but that is clearly wrong given an the UK played a central role in the formation of the world we live in today.