16 FEBRUARY

CHINESE DESTROY BRITISH OPIUM WHICH LEADS TO THE FIRST OPIUM WAR. 3 June 1839 – Lin Zexu, an imperial commissioner of Qing China, orders the destruction of illegal opium imports which was being shipped by British traders.  China had banned the import of opium in 1800 but until 1839, traders had been able to purchase…

THE UK VETOES UN INITIATIVE TO STOP ASSAULT ON THE YEMENI PORT OF HODEIDAH AND AVERT FAMINE. 14 June 2018 – In a closed session of the UN security council, the UK joined the United States and France in making it clear it would veto any attempt to halt the military assault on the Yemeni…

BRISTOL CELEBRATES THE DEFEAT OF BRITAIN’S FIRST ANTI-SLAVERY BILL [ 19 April 1791 ] On this day in 1791, the House of Commons, many of its members having close business ties to the trade and the West Indies plantations, overwhelmingly rejected a bill proposed by William Wilberforce to outlaw the slave trade. The margin of…

28 CIVILIANS SHOT DEAD IN ATHENS BY BRITISH ARMED NAZI COLLABORATORS Winston Churchill’s legendary qualities of courage and defiance are often celebrated. It is taken for granted that he was motivated primarily by a moral repugnance to Nazism. But if so it’s difficult to understand his decision in 1944 to release around 12,000 Nazi collaborators…

BRITISH ARMY MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO PREVENT EXECUTION OF  IRAQI CHRISTIAN. [ 24 December 2003 ] On this day in 2003 British soldiers failed to intervene when local Shia militia executed a Christian man in the town’s main marketplace for the crime of selling alcohol. Over the preceding months, following the joint British-American invasion in…