We mustn't kid ourselves that everything we did in our days of Empire were good. One our most shameful acts was to starve the inhabitants of the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia by withdrawing their regular deliveries of food so that the island became uninhabited between 1963/8.---( this happened under Harold Wilson's Labour Government. ) As an uninhabited island, we could grant a long lease to the Americans who wanted it as an airforce base from which they could reach Iraq and Afghanistan. That base remains fully operational today by the U.S. airforce.

The inhabitants of Diego Garcia were shipped off to Seychelles and Mauritius against their wishes. As a reward for taking them in, both islands were given their independence. Here we are 50 years later and the descendants of those forced migrants continue to live in the same squalid conditions as their forefathers with no prospects of work or ever improving their status.

In exchange for "selling" this island to the Americans, we obtained big discounts on the import of their Polaris Nuclear Missiles!

I first came across this story about 20 years ago and consider it to be one of the most disgraceful episodes in our history. Anyone who is interested can read the full account on Wikipedia.