I have a book, written by Peter Moss, published in 1970, and he has this to say about the first two Spitfires that Cotton managed to wangle out of Dowding:-
“At nine o’clock next morning two spitfire Mk.Is (N3069 and N3071) landed at Heston. They were immediately stripped of guns, wireless and other excess weight, the gun holes were covered over with metal plates, all cracks were stopped up with plaster of paris, and all external surfaces were stripped of camouflage to be repainted in pale green “Camotint” overall, and polished to a hard-gloss finish.”

Do descendents of the protagonists refer to each other as “vermin” or “filth” because of what happened many centuries ago?

That’s reserved for use by modern-day haters of the police.

What has this got to do with the thread topic, and the injustices that happened during the British Empire?

Nothing, but it has everything to do with your crass statement that Britain has “got off lightly.”

And to respond to your deflective defensive post:
Good grief! Britain didn’t do it to keep the world free any more than the Empire was run for benevolent reasons.
Britain fought for national survival, and to retain the Empire,

I have no idea if you’re receptive to advice, but you’re going to get it, anyway; if you’re going to discuss history, try not to rewrite it before you start. Britain declared war because an ally, namely Poland, was invaded; that the war went badly, and left us on the defensive does not alter the fact that we went to war for an ideal.

something Churchill desperately fought for before the US disabused him and successors very firmly of that idea.

What diabolical behaviour for a British Prime Minister; obviously you feel that he should have allowed it to fall under the control of Tojo and Hitler, where they would have been far better off.

I’m beginning to suspect you’re one of “those” mentioned earlier, so let me ask you:

Suspect what you like; your opinion of me matters not one jot, and you can answer your own questions.

Britain is certainly not the only one who has stumped up to pay for certain misdeeds of the recent past, and in fact, as mentioned, you would have to admit that Britain has got off very lightly indeed, all things considered.

Yes, we “only” lost 1,337,000 of our people in helping to keep the world free, during two World Wars, and spent 60 years in debt to American bankers, totally inconsequential, really.

Ahhh, that old chestnut.
“The empire was done purely for altruistic reasons, and nothing to do with exploiting resources and for strategic reasons.”

You said that, not me, and I never have (or would,) so please don’t put words into my mouth. However, I’m becoming heartily sick of hearing only of the disgusting behaviour of the evil British. As usual, we hear of Britain’s involvement in the slave trade, but not a word about how it was the British Navy which led the way in putting paid to the white slave trade, perpetrated by non-whites in the Mediterranean.

It’s unfashionable to say this here no doubt, and easy to wave a hand dismissively and pretend some things didn’t happen, but have you considered that hundreds of thousands of peoples lives were ruined whilst running the Glorious Empire, with repercussions still around today?

And have you considered the millions who’ve had their lives improved by the introduction of Western-style education into their near-Stone Age living conditions?

Oh, dear, what will the doom merchants do now? Stand by for a return of the “Let’s bash David Cundall” thread.