Ben Macintyre on Britain's moral view of the past

"Never has the past mattered more to the present. Never has the hunger for historical justice been more intense. To our ancestors, the idea of holding history to account would have seemed perverse and unrealistic. Today it is a part of defining reality", notes Ben Macintyre, journalist and author of historical nonfiction books. "Britain, despite (or because) of her colonial past, takes a high moral line on such matters [the crimes of history]. … Earlier this year we loudly celebrated the abolition of the slave trade, the largest and cruellest forced migration in human history. The message from our cultural masters is clear: we must apologise for Britain's part in the evictions of the past; we must condemn such actions in the present, and if necessary (and convenient) go to war over them, as in Kosovo."

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