Gervase, well said.

This drum banging over past rights and wrongs is a futile exercise, will it alter anything if myself or any other English man apologises for these deeds, No it won't. The dead will still be dead, the descendants of those who left propbably have no intention of returning, no matter what the political and economic climate.

This energy spent on this retrospective moralising would probably be better directed at issues affecting us and others today.

I also get pretty pissed off when the English are made the whipping boy when someone feels the need to hoist the victim banner whether on their own or others behalf, there is a lot of ugly history out there, often closer to home that we might like.

Stuart