If, as the joke goes, war is God’s way of teaching Americans geography, then sport is arguably His way of instructing the British in their own history. The World Cup provoked an outpouring of anti-England sentiment, much of it rooted in the colonial past. An Irish Times article posited that it is “totally fine to hate England during the World Cup”; Union Jack flags were burned in Buenos Aires; and Sinn Fein Senator Chris Andrews announced that he would “support anyone who’s playing England until England isn’t occupying Ireland”.

The national curriculum really doesn’t cover history with the colonies in mind

The national curriculum really doesn’t cover history with the colonies in mind

“Anyone against England” isn’t new for Andrews’ countrymen; Taoiseach Eamon de Valera sent condolences on the death of Hitler. (We can use history too, you know). But is this sentiment confined to footballing banter or does imperial history affect our diplomacy today? Empire has bequeathed various issues complicating Britain’s relationships, including compensation for historical injustices, demands for reparations, and calls for the repatriation of looted artefacts.

Yet diplomats stress that these are rarely raised by government counterparts. Jeffrey James, High Commissioner in Kenya between 1997 and 2001, tells me: “I cannot recall any occasion when Britain’s colonial past was raised as a means of exerting some kind of pressure. In Kenya, Britain’s standing was still generally very high, both with politicians and the public, with the great majority of people seeing Britain as a friendly source of advice and support. The issue of victims of torture, even castration, was just coming to the fore and, later, as the evidence emerged from hidden archives, compensation was paid by the British Government. But this campaign was championed by London-based lawyers and did not receive particularly strong support from the Kenyan Government”.

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Ex-High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad says the issue of reparations was “never raised with me by the Prime Minister of Jamaica or the bulk of his cabinet. One or two MPs, particularly from a long-standing campaign, mentioned it every now and then, but it was really in passing. You heard it more in the university and campaign groups”.

He adds: “A Foreign Office junior minister came and had an excellent trip but tripped at the final hurdle when a journalist asked him about colonialism and slavery. He said ‘let’s not peer too deeply into our history’. The editorial that followed was ‘Britain, a country that wants to immerse herself in her history, will not permit us ours’. It was quite an ouch moment”.

There is no set training for diplomats on how to handle such demands: “Any of that is not specifically subject-trained. It’s a question of the worldview that you form based on the political direction of the government”.

But that is not to say the government is schooled in history. Ahmad says that rapid ministerial turnover and political instability since 2010........

© The Spectator