Cameron knows diddlysquat about history.

Back in la-la land, Dave caused the merde to hit the air-conditioning with his asinine remarks during his recent visit to Pakistan. It was all the fault of the Brits and our beastly Raj, says he. Then he handed over megabucks for ‘education’.

Cameron knows diddlysquat about history. The two greatest incorporeal legacies of the Raj to the sub-continent were the English language and the English Common Law.

Until 1947, India was a concept rather than a nation. Prior to that, much of India consisted of Princely states under the Raj. Kashmir was ceded to India by the Maharajah after Independence. Hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan almost immediately. The UN called for a withdrawal of forces on both sides and for a plebiscite of the Kashmiris. Pakistan did not comply and the rest is history. (Why India wishes to hang on to a largely Muslim state that has been trouble since Day 1 has never been explained; perhaps because it dare not set a precedent for fear of engendering other separatist movements).

It is worth remembering also that Pakistan was set up as a Muslim state, not Islamic. Jinnah’s concept was tolerance of other religions and this was generally the position until Zia ruined things. (Mind you, if you are on the top floor of the Marriot in Islamabad you can just about see the Murree Brewery and Distillery which makes a pretty good single malt; who drinks it all is not explained)

Pakistan’s problems are mostly self-induced. Pakistan is rated as 143rd in the corruption league table, a fiercely fought over position with such competition as Nigeria, Somalia, Bangladesh and other star performers. It has a dysfunctional polity. It has appalling socio-economic inequalities. Nothing seems to work properly except the army and the railways, both legacies of the Raj. Like much of Islam, it squanders a huge proportion of its human resource by its discrimination against women, although it has to be said that many have risen to the top despite this, including Benazir, although this might not be a particularly happy example.

I’m afraid that the government is ‘in office but not in power’. The men-with-the-beards seem to have taken over and Pakistan is increasingly becoming a Taliban sanctuary, potentially disastrous when you consider that Pakistan has 120 nuclear warheads. It spends 8 times as much on defence as on education, the exact opposite of Indonesia. And it suits the army nicely to keep the Kashmir dispute going since this justifies their enormous budgets.

As for recent times, Dave seems unaware that, after the US (where charitable donations are tax-deductible) the British public gave by far the greatest amount of money to the flood relief. Not much came from the rest of Europe or from the Pakistanis’ wealthy co-religionists.