Category: Colonialism and ‘Decolonisation’
-
How a narrative of black victimhood and white guilt has torpedoed a tribute to one of the noblest episodes in our history
31 May 2024. Nigel for the Daily Mail. The heroics of HMS Black Joke, a Royal Navy clipper that waged a fearless five-year war to put an end to the slave trade, are worthy of a Hollywood action movie. She was once a slave ship herself, sailing under the Brazilian flag and known as the…
-
Nigel’s Letter to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
28 May 2024. Philippa Macinnes, Museum Manager,Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Dear Ms Macinnes, I am writing to register a protest against the travesty of history represented by the display in the Kelvingrove Museum entitled, “Glasgow—City of Empire”. I do not object to your museum’s communication of discreditable and lamentable truths about the history of…
-
Glasgow’s British Empire exhibition is a travesty of the truth
28 May 2024. Nigel for The Times. Scotland owes over £20 billion in reparations for slavery, claims the Cambridge don, Michael Banner. And if the Kelvingrove Museum is to be believed, the Scots should pay it. “Glasgow was one of the major port cities in Britain which benefited from the [slave] trade”, declares its display,…
-
Oxbridge protestors can’t hide their ignorance
7 May 2024. Students and staff are united through their foolish misunderstanding of Israel’s founding It’s no surprise that the widely broadcast pro-Palestinian protests in the US should have inspired some Oxford students to pitch their tents outside the Pitt Rivers Museum, decrying Oxford University’s historic complicity in the British Empire’s “disastrous colonial legacies” in Palestine. …
-
Professor Biggar defends his book Colonialism
3 May 2024. Nigel in the Church Times. From the Revd Professor Nigel Biggar Sir, — I write to correct four misleading statements made by Dr Susan Durber and the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor (Letters, 26 April) First, Dr Durber finds my book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning “repugnant”, because I judge the wholesale damnation of…
-
Kemi Badenoch was right to deny Britain’s economic prosperity is due to white privilege and colonialism
22 April 2024. By Nigel Biggar for The Daily Sceptic. In her speech at the London conference of TheCityUK last Thursday, Kemi Badenoch denied that Britain’s economic prosperity is mainly attributable to colonial exploitation. She made this historical claim because of its present political significance. If post-colonial governments really believe in the narrative of simple victimhood at…
-
Reassessing the Moral Narrative of Colonialism
9 April 2024. “Historical, moral judgment can be a difficult thing to navigate in the context of colonialism. Have you ever pondered the role of truth in history and its impact on today’s political culture? … Nigel and Greg LeBlanc (unSILOed) discuss whether historical accuracy should bow to political objectives or stand resolute in the…
-
Imperial Quandary: Nigel reviews ‘One Fine Day: Britain’s Empire on the Brink’ by Matthew Parker
24 March 2024. The approach is imaginative: to present a snapshot of the British Empire a century ago, five years after its victory in the First World War, when its territory was most extensive and at what must have seemed its zenith. The result is a display of the Empire in all its ad hoc variety, from…
-
Israel’s founding is complex and messy – but it certainly wasn’t imperialist
3 March 2024. By Nigel Biggar for The Telegraph. Opponents of the Jewish state smear it as a colonial project. This is a false narrative and fake history. The “decolonisation” story is a moral melodrama, performed in stark divisions: black versus white, oppressed versus oppressor, good versus evil. That’s the comic- book source of its…
-
Decolonisation is an Assault on Britain
29 February 2024. Nigel joins Deprogrammed, a podcast of The New Culture Forum, to discuss decolonisation with host Harrison Pitt of the European Conservative magazine. Nigel and Harrison are joined by Connor Tomlinson of Lotus Eaters.