Michael Gove may have been dumped as Education Secretary but at least he can feel reassured by the news that most of the public agree with his stance on the British Empire. Despite it being a topic most politicians would run an imperial mile from, a new YouGov poll has found that three out of four Britons think the empire was something to be proud of, and a third would like it if Britain still had one.
Tory MP Kwasi Kwarteng — author of The Ghosts of Empire, a book about the less savoury aspects of British colonial rule — was more pragmatic than most when The Londoner quizzed him about the poll. “It’s clearly a mixed legacy,” he said, “not sure how we could get the empire back [though] — especially after the reduction in the defence budget!”
