It’s strange witnessing British alarm about small boats crossing the English Channel given that for five-hundred years Britain sent great vessels to foreign shores all over the world in its ambitions to build the largest empire in human history. We worry about a few rubber dinghies, transporting a bedraggled crew, when once we sent whole naval fleets and fearsome gunboats to enforce our kind of order in our dominions, colonies, protectorates and mandates thousands of miles from home. Once we thought of ourselves as Great Britain. Now we prefer Little England.
Last modified: 7 March 2023
