Well said, Stilly, but there are a couple of things that need putting strait. Firstly - as said before - the Scots are free, as are the Irish as are the Welsh. They have been free in the sense you mean for a long time. The oppressed peoples of the British empire are, as you so astutely point out, the ex-colonials who now work for a pittance in sweat shops. Unfortunately the first colony of the British Empire was England :-( It was never a racial thing. It was all to do with class and the Victorians, who underlined and emboldened the word with a vengance, surpressed those who could not fight back mercilessly.

I mentioned in another thread the starving mill workers of Lancashire who refused to work with Southern US cotton in support of the Union and anti-slavery. There were also the pit workers who went on strike for 10% and were thrown out of their jobs. No, not a 10% rise - They wanted to limit their pay CUT to 10% as opposed to the 25% the owners got. I can link as many instances as Liz can if you so desire but that seems to be such a stupid thing to do.

All these people were surpressed but, unfortunately, they do not have the romantic kudos of the 'Noble Savage'. Their is still a class war going on. There is still oppression and the sort of class wars that went on then. To an ardent royalist such as Liz however this cannot possibly be the truth. It is much easier to believe that the white man stole from the redskin than it is to believe that her precious nobility are the very ones who set ordinary working men against each other in an endevour to create more wealth.

If anyone needs to apologise it is the royals. Not your very admirable, to me anyway, president.

Cheers

DtG