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Peace and freedom don't just drop out of the sky.

Sure the Brits got some benefits for colonization, but in return they gave the fruits of a system that was 1500 years in the building (if you go back to the Anglo-Saxon moots that were the foundation of the British system). British colonies got the English legal and political system (which is pretty darned good, and forms the basis for ours - with variations) and the English religious/moral code (which isn't bad either).

Back when I spent a good deal of time in the Caribbean, the rule of thumb was that you could count on decent water, good roads, reasonably honest law enforcement, and an Anglican church wherever the Brits had been in charge.

And you can't compare the British Empire to some idealized concept of political perfection in your head. Compare it instead to its contemporaries: the brutal empires of Belgium and Germany, and the less brutal but wasteful & ineffective one of France (I once spent an hour trying to deal with a couple of Parisian customs officials who had been imported to St. Barthelemy. Even the locals hated their guts.)

What's really sad is that Britain seems to have given it all up with hardly a whimper.

Peace and freedom don't just drop out of the sky.

True, the British may have brought peace but they did not bring freedom.

And you can't compare the British Empire to some idealized concept of political perfection in your head.

I do not. I am just pointing out that the British intent was not to spread freedom and peace to the world. The intent was to exploit their colonies for riches and resources for the British Empire. The fact that others eventually benefited from that is great, but there are two sides to their Empire that should be acknowledged.

Though a more extreme case, there are those in Russia trying to whitewash Stalin now. So I think we need to be loyal to the complete story when discussing these historical events.

but in return they gave the fruits of a system that was 1500 years in the building (if you go back to the Anglo-Saxon moots that were the foundation of the British system). British colonies got the English legal and political system (which is pretty darned good, and forms the basis for ours - with variations) and the English religious/moral code (which isn't bad either).

Alright, but besides the legal and political system and religious/moral code, and the industries what have the Brits ever done for us?