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As a Brit, I can confirm that there is a large section of our population that thinks the empire was a positive thing and pines for a return to it.

Even the 'white man's burden' is viewed by many as a necessary endeavour. It's the number one criticism I have of my own country (and I have many).

It's nationalist propaganda that panders to exceptionalism and it seems to have worked on half of the electorate unfortunately.

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I would say a large section of our population want to go back to a certain style of governance that they believe (true or not) was around during the empire, that of strong economic liberalism and free trade with the rest of the world. I'd say it's one of the big philosophical differences with the EU (its protectionism is its main defining characteristic, after all) that has led to the Brexit vote.

The number of people who want the empire back though, I reckon you could count those on one hand.

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