White Man's Burden

The high court has ruled that three former suspected terrorists can sue the British government for their rendition and assertive interrogation during the Mau Mau insurgency. The Government acknowledges that the detention and torture took place, but has already amply compensated the victims with various helpful suggestions, such as the idea that they instead sue the Kenyan government, which did not exist when the crimes occurred. The British government has also been concerned over the fact that most of the officials and functionaries of the empire for which we should stop apologising are now dead, and therefore unable to inform us to what extent they were doing a necessary job under difficult circumstances. It was doubtless in the interests of fair play towards these people that the Foreign and Colonial Office did its best to conceal the existence of an archive of colonial files, by lying to its own staff about which department the files belonged to. The archive was eventually discovered by lawyers for the victims, and the high court has now ruled that a fair trial is possible. Naturally, the Government plans to appeal the ruling, since matters need only be delayed a few more years for the remaining beneficiaries of our civilising influence to die off and cease from troubling us.