Team being abused at the airport last night. You really have to ask

[Burney]

We also, to our enormous credit, gave back our empire without engaging in a brutal war against the indigenous population first.

No other nation on earth would have given India away without a fight.

No. They did enthusiastically slaughter one another the minute we left, though. I've always felt it a bit rich that they blame us for that, tbh. Make your fùcking minds up imo.

[redgunamo]

By the manager, I hope #wastemen

Team being abused at the airport last night.

[Sir C]

No. They did enthusiastically slaughter one another the minute we left, though. I've always felt it a bit rich that they blame us for that, tbh. Make your fùcking minds up imo.

Yes, and as I understand it Mountbatten was a-feared for exactly such an outcome if we disappeared quite so rapidly and pleaded for a delay, but alas and alack, thon Congress was determined to git r done ASAP.

All a bit self-inflicted, as you say.

[Sir C]

** cough **

For some the war goes on.

The war's over, sw. British intelligence and the parachute regiment defeated your 'army' so severely, they had to come and surrender to Tony fúcking Blair! Imagine surrendering to Tony Blair

[Burney]

Yes, and as I understand it Mountbatten was a-feared for exactly such an outcome if we disappeared quite so rapidly and pleaded for a delay, but alas and alack, thon Congress was determined to git r done ASAP.

All a bit self-inflicted, as you say.

The Yanqui and the Labour Party share a lot of the blame, too. Both - albeit for very different reasons - wanted our empire dismantled ASAFP.

[Viva Prat Vegas]

Sad news about the abusive six
Was one of them the manchild in baseball cap perchance?

[SWv2]

Sad news about the abusive six
Was one of them the manchild in baseball cap perchance?

"Come and face us".

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Suppression of the cult of Thuggee?

How was the Cafe Klein?

Got there after 5-6 min walk as team coming out. Got matey to put game on. Got a pint. Could help myself jumping up and shouting "Get the **** in" when Iwobi scored, much to the amusement of natives.

Then there was astorm and the sattelite died after about 20 mins. Ordered another pint. They couldn't fix it, so I left. I should have known - this was a sign. Ganpati wasn't going to let me see us lose in the place you recommended. I should have rung up a mate and put a score on us losing from 1-0 there and then.

Cheap pints, though. Only €4. So well worth knowing as it's just across the road from our metro stop.

But speaking of thuggees. I've a book for you.

From Sepoy to Subedar.

https://www.amazon.com/Sepoy-Subedar.../dp/0333456726

Sorry it's the US site - being in France it doesn't wany to give me the UK.

But it's the only source written by a native Indian soldier. He fought gainst the thuggees. In fact, you know all those Flashman stories set in India, well Sita Ram Pandey fought in all of them. Simple read. You'lllove it.

He stayed loyal during the mutiny. Fighting alongside Mjr Northgate. Saved his life. So when Pandey's son - a rebel was to be executed, SRP asked to be excused from the firing squad and (now Lt-Col) Northgate agreed.

The Britishers back in London went mad that Northgate had excused the loyal and heroic SRP from executing his own son. {And you wonder why I don't like Britishers.}

But anyway, Northgate suggested he wrote his memoirs. He'd gone from Sepoy (private) to Subedar {a company's top Viceory's Commissioned (native) officer} which entilted you be called Sahib by the white officers.

He didn't want to, but because Northgate had gone through all that shît in London on his behalf, he did.

It's the only Indian-written source we have about the Indian amy.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

As would B.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

To be fair, we did also end the slave trade voluntarily - and enforced that ban on other nations. No other power in human history can claim to have done anything even remotely comparable in terms of ending an evil that has bedevilled mankind as long as we've had civilisation. That's a pretty big tick in the plus column imo.

Oh, and then there's the willing sacrifice of our imperial power in order to defeat vastly worse powers in the first half of the 20th Century. That buys us a fair amount of credit, I'd say.

Oh, I totally agree.

I can send you the top academic article on that, if you want. By David Eltis, who produced a CD-rom in the '90s featuring every single slave voyage as a database.

He said the UK in 1834-40 became the first society in human history to confer non-enslavable "insider" status on the whole of humanity.

It's a great article to be able to cite if you wanna wind up lefties.

In the two WWs we were acting in our national interests - the same two that have guided our FP since Liz I. Namely making sure at least some of the channel ports were in friendly hands and stopping one power dominating the continent.

The fact that we happened to lose our empire as a result doesn't mean this was a magnanamous gesture.

[Sir C]

Got there after 5-6 min walk as team coming out. Got matey to put game on. Got a pint. Could help myself jumping up and shouting "Get the **** in" when Iwobi scored, much to the amusement of natives.

Then there was astorm and the sattelite died after about 20 mins. Ordered another pint. They couldn't fix it, so I left. I should have known - this was a sign. Ganpati wasn't going to let me see us lose in the place you recommended. I should have rung up a mate and put a score on us losing from 1-0 there and then.

Cheap pints, though. Only €4. So well worth knowing as it's just across the road from our metro stop.

But speaking of thuggees. I've a book for you.

From Sepoy to Subedar.

https://www.amazon.com/Sepoy-Subedar.../dp/0333456726

Sorry it's the US site - being in France it doesn't wany to give me the UK.

But it's the only source written by a native Indian soldier. He fought gainst the thuggees. In fact, you know all those Flashman stories set in India, well Sita Ram Pandey fought in all of them. Simple read. You'lllove it.

He stayed loyal during the mutiny. Fighting alongside Mjr Northgate. Saved his life. So when Pandey's son - a rebel was to be executed, SRP asked to be excused from the firing squad and (now Lt-Col) Northgate agreed.

The Britishers back in London went mad that Northgate had excused the loyal and heroic SRP from executing his own son. {And you wonder why I don't like Britishers.}

But anyway, Northgate suggested he wrote his memoirs. He'd gone from Sepoy (private) to Subedar {a company's top Viceory's Commissioned (native) officer} which entilted you be called Sahib by the white officers.

He didn't want to, but because Northgate had gone through all that shît in London on his behalf, he did.

It's the only Indian-written source we have about the Indian amy.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

As would B.

ty g, I’ll definitely order that. Despite the spoilers.