AS a late friend of mine said of his ex-wife after a messy divorce, "she had a first-class honours degree in hindsight and the bleedin' obvious".

Such is the case with those who criticise the history of colonialism.

Such people would do well to try to put themselves in the position of those who made the decisions in times gone by.

No emails, no telephone, no postal service.

You made decisions, rightly or wrongly, based on experience and the situation.

In terms of Government, the quest for expansion was a case of competing with other countries in Europe who were also bent on expansion.

It was a case of the weakest go to the wall, and the devil take the hindmost!

It is absolutely pointless in apologising for what happened in the past.

"The moving finger writes,and having writ,moves on. Nor all thy piety, nor wit, shall serve to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it."

Do we expect the Spanish and Portuguese to apologise for the devastation caused in South America? The French for problems in Africa and South-East Asia? The Belgians for Central Africa?

The Italians for first of all the Romans, then their ventures in Africa? The Scandinavians for the Vikings? The list goes on.

People like Janet Tice need to grow up and get on with the world as it is and not what it might have been if we had all been people with no interest in the outside world.

David Olliver

Altrincham