States that have experienced revolutions or have acquired their independence from empires – such as the U.S. or Australia – tend to celebrate their constitutional documents and put them on show in special galleries so that every citizen can become familiar with them. In the U.K., this is not properly done. Linda Colley Read Quote
Historically, religion has often proved a more lethal and more divisive force than any secular ideology. It has also often been a more divisive force than race. Linda Colley Read Quote
In the 16th and 17th centuries, most people in Britain lived in small village communities. They knew all their neighbours. They dressed alike, and almost all were white. The vast majority belonged to the same religion and spoke much the same language. Linda Colley Read Quote
Conservative and Labour governments have arguably championed British rights in Brussels so ostentatiously in order to deflect public attention away from their deference to Washington. Linda Colley Read Quote
Even leaving aside its military bases, America’s influence on the domestic ordering of British life has been enormous, though sometimes unrecognised. Linda Colley Read Quote
One knows something is important when the powers that be choose not to acknowledge it in public. Linda Colley Read Quote
One of the reasons why the personnel of U.S. politics are more diverse is that – unlike the U.K. – one can compete for the top job without spending long years, or any years, in the nation’s legislature. Linda Colley Read Quote
Instead of exporting what they perceived to be rational, modern, humane government to their colonies, the British often found themselves propping up deeply unattractive and corrupt princelings and client rulers because this was the cheapest way of maintaining control. Linda Colley Read Quote
Britain, like other European states, is not and never will again be in the top-world-power league, so its male leaders can afford to play subtler, more variegated roles. Leaders of the U.S. don’t have that option. Linda Colley Read Quote
Partly because women in the U.S. are better represented in the hierarchies, the culture wars over gender there have been particularly fierce. Linda Colley Read Quote