Britain, that small yet once highly influential nation that once proudly ruled over much of you, that “gifted” you the English language as well as William Shakespeare and Mark Morrison, that kindly bestowed upon you industrialisation as well as industrialised slavery, the proud nation that won two world wars and created football … I’m afraid to reveal, is not what it used to be.

First, we lost “our” empire, then we lost Queen Elizabeth II, then we lost our sense of identity. And now, it would appear, a good number of us have lost our minds. Little crystallises this more than the latest brain-spark of former Conservative home secretary (now Reform UK equalities spokesperson) Suella Braverman. In a stroke of unmitigated genius, she has suggested that nations once enslaved, exploited and subjugated by Britain should pay reparations to Britain – the enslaver and coloniser – for all the “good” generously imposed upon them. Or, as she put it: “former colonies should pay the British back for the considerable investment, effort and contribution that this country made which laid the foundations for many flourishing democracies today”.

Mia Mottley, the globally admired prime minister of Barbados, took time out of her day to address Braverman’s “asinine” suggestion: “I cannot believe we are being asked to respond to the suggestion that the descendants of the enslaved should pay for the machinery........

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