The Devil's Kitchen

I'm going to declare an interest. I like the Devil's Kitchen. I think it's one of the best written and funniest blogs in the business. But, just occasionally he does make an error, as the Pedant-General would agree. This one isn't grammatical, but historical. Boris makes the point that all empires eventually make explicit the resonances between their empire tand the Roman Empire and the DK takes up the cudgels on behalf of the British Empire.

I defer to very few in my admiration of the British Empire, but on this the tale is fairly clear. take a brief look at the statues in London, specifically those of viceroys such as Lord Canning and Lord Curzon. There they stand, in imperial splendour, with Latin or latinate tags. Canning stands resplendent in a toga, not the standard costume of 1815.

The British Empire used Roman Imperial symbolism, just in a different way to Nazi Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was used in its symbolic form of a force of civilisation, of culture and of liberty. It was also used as a reflection of military power. This may not be palatable, though I don't see it as regrettable, but it was the case. Sorry.