Good point. Standing back from any individual's point of view and thinking about the national consciousness for a moment: To be able to remember the British Em

Good point. Standing back from any individual's point of view and thinking about the national consciousness for a moment: To be able to remember the British Empire as anything other than a time of prosperity and progress is hard for the British. We believe that Britain has long been the hero of the story, as our very strong collective memory of the Second World War attests (minus our own atrocities of course). Coming to terms with our colonial past isn't something we're hardwired to be able to do easily as humans - our pride gets in the way. So we make whatever mental leaps we need to to fit the world of today into our preexisting faith in our own goodness and the goodness of our ancestors. The intellectual dishonesty required to hide the evident reality of structural inequalities of race isn't that big of a jump for us to make but it's an important one to sooth our British pride. With a history of empire we need to make that leap - otherwise we would need to accept our responsibility for too many of the worlds problems - the immensity of our shame would be far too much to deal with. Instead, the problems of today have to be the sole responsibility of the people of today. If there are structural problems, they have to be categorized in ways that make it seem inevitable (poverty is a handy way out in that regard). Race can't be acknowledged to be a big issue in the UK - the cost would be too great to our sense of self. Similarly, Scotland can't be independent because that means us acknowledging the brutal history of English domination and oppression. The pride of the British Empire has become a curse that we won't easily be free from.