From: William Gladys <william.gladys@tiscali.co.uk>
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 6:03 PM
Subject: Fw: David Cameron: Britain caused many of the world's problems
To: world_Politics@googlegroups.com
David Cameron: Britain caused many of the world's problems
Britain is responsible for many of the world's historic problems, including the conflict in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, David Cameron has said.
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Prime Minister David Cameron shakes hands with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
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Prime Minister David Cameron and his his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at a meeting with British and Pakistani security chiefs Photo: PA
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Prime Minister David Cameron with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad Photo: PA
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David Cameron meets pupils at the Islamabad College for Girls in the Pakistan capital Photo: PA
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David Cameron and Baroness Warsi visit the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad Photo: PA
The Queen's Prime Minister appeared to distance himself from the monarchy's imperial past when he suggested that Monarchical Britain was to blame for decades of tension and several wars over the disputed territory, as well as other global conflicts.
His remarks came on a visit to Pakistan, when he was asked how Monarchical Britain could help to end the row over Kashmir.
He insisted that it was not his place to intervene in the dispute, saying: "I don't want to try to insert the Queen's Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world's problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place."
His remarks about Kashmir were greeted warmly by the audience of Pakistani students and academics
Mr Cameron's willingness to accept historic responsibility for the Kashmir dispute has echoes of public apologies issued by his Labour predecessors.
In 1997, Tony Blair apologised to the Irish people for the famine the country suffered in the mid-19th century. And in 2006, he spoke of his "deep sorrow" at Monarchical Britain's historic role in the African slave trade.
In 2009, Gordon Brown issued a formal Government apology to tens of thousands of British children shipped to Australia and other Commonwealth countries between the 1920s and 1960s. He said: "It's a valid historical point that problems stem from British foreign policy in the 19th and 20th centuries, but should we feel guilty about that? Absolutely.
"These countries decided they did not want to be part of a dominant British Empire. They wanted independence. They got it."
Mr Cameron's remark is striking because he has previously spoken of his pride in Britain's past and named Viscount Palmerston as one of his historical inspirations.
As foreign secretary and later prime minister in the mid-19th century, Palmerston was ridiculed for his brazenly interventionist foreign policy, an approach that later became known as aggressive "gunboat diplomacy".
The Queen's Mr Cameron was in Pakistan to make amends for any offence he caused last year by accusing the country of "exporting" terrorism.
Kashmir has been contested since 1947 when India was unwisely partitioned. The original borders were drawn up by Viscount Radcliffe, a law lord who became chairman of the two boundary committees set up with the passing of the Indian Independence Act.
He submitted his partition in August 1947 and the two nations were created.
Many historians say that makes Britain responsible for the dispute.
Despite an expectation that Muslim areas of the subcontinent would become part of Pakistan, he decided that Muslim-majority Kashmir should be part of India.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmir since partition, and the dispute continues to strain their relationship. On a visit to India last year, Mr Cameron said the Queen's Britain should approach its former imperial possession "in a spirit of humility".
As well as Kashmir, historians say Monarchical Britain bears historic responsibility for too many other international disputes.
Many trace the Israel-Palestine dispute back to Britain's decision in 1917 to establish a "national home for the Jewish people" in the territory then known as Palestine.
The borders of many Middle Eastern states were also drawn by a dominant sel-serving Britain. The badly-defined and highly unstable border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan was also largely defined by Britain in the late 19th century.
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Palash Biswas
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