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Commentators debate how Britain should treat its ex-colonies following Prime Minister David Cameron's meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Mr Cameron motivation for pledging to spend Β£650m on Pakistani schools and provide the nation's security forces with new technology:

"David Cameron is back from his guilt trip to Pakistan. He seemed to feel that he had to atone for the supposed sins of the British Empire by lavishing our money on the failing, chaotic Muslim state. So, while claiming that our past imperialism has created many of the problems in the region, he pledges to spend Β£650million on Pakistani schools and provide the nation's security forces with new technology...
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"A truly compassionate government would put the interests of the British people first."

The that the prime minister was right to face Britain's colonial past:

"Cameron was responding to a question about the Kashmir conflict - a product of Britain's partition of India in 1947 - and was clearly anxious to avoid antagonising either Indian opinion or his Pakistani hosts. 'I don't want to try to insert Britain in some leading role', the prime minister explained, with a modesty that eluded him in the buildup to Nato's intervention in Libya.
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"But his critics were having none of it. Cameron was being naive; he was playing to the gallery, they said; there was nothing to be guilty about - and, anyway, imperial history was all very complicated...."

Mr Milne goes on to suggest that Mr Cameron should go further than he did:

"[I]t's scarcely a coincidence that many of the world's most intractable conflicts are in former British colonies or protectorates: from the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, Kurdistan, Yemen and Somalia to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Cyprus and Sudan - with the reflex imperial resort to partition a recurrent theme. What Cameron said in Islamabad can't seriously be disputed...
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"What's needed are not so much apologies, still less declarations of guilt, but some measure of acknowledgement, reparation and understanding that invasions, occupations and external diktats imposed by force are a recipe not for international justice but continued conflict and violence, including against those who stand behind them."

Conversely the Mr Cameron to stop apologising:

"I admire David Cameron, and believe that he has qualities that might make him a great prime minister. He diminishes himself, nonetheless, when he speaks ill of Britain abroad.
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"If our Prime Minister is not proud of his country, its past as well as its present, then it becomes all the harder to make the rest of its citizens honour our heritage as we should."

both colonialists and the colonised should all move on:

"[I]t is no longer good enough to blame Britain. It is an easy get-out-of-jail card for failing and corrupt leaders to blame the last Empire.
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"Yes, mistakes were made, but that is no excuse for bad government.
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"The British Empire has a mixed legacy, but the challenge for nations like Pakistan to rise above history.
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"That should be David Cameron's message."

Political blogger that David Cameron's pledge was made on the same day a 40% tax rate kicked in at Β£35,000 above the personal allowance:

"It was pointed out to Guido that the gift of Β£600m that Cameron pledged to Pakistan yesterday is more than the tax take from this squeeze on middle-earners. But it's ok he's sure they are very grateful."