NEARLY half of Labour Party members (48 per cent) are ashamed of the past 300 years of Britain’s history, a survey has revealed. Fewer than a third (29 per cent) are proud of it.
How sad – but we wonder if they need a crash course in British history.
Achievements by Britons from 1700 onwards include the invention of the steam engine, vaccine, the light bulb, the telephone, plastic, the television, the chocolate bar, Bovril, the jet engine, the computer, the ATM cash machine, the IVF conception technique and the internet. Britons made huge advances in communications, public health, sanitation, agricultural methods, industrial processes, photography, astronomy, medicine, transport, engineering and science.
Britain was the first country to outlaw slavery and its democratic and legal systems are copied the world over. The National Health Service was the first to provide care to any citizen needing it without requiring fees or insurance.
Thinkers include Jeremy Bentham, John Wesley, G K Chesterton, Edmund Burke, David Hume, John Henry Newman, C S Lewis, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell and Roger Scruton.
Do you feel proud of Britain’s last 300 years, and why? Discuss!
