Ken Loach asks "Where is the apology for Empire?"

Interviewed in the wake of winning the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival for his film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Ken Loach spoke of apology for empire. Asked by the interviewer, "When you spoke of the film being a small step in confronting Britain's imperialist past, what did you mean?"
Ken Loach replied: "Most people are aware that the empire was built on occupying other people's territories, taking their raw materials, subjugating them, taking our language and imposing it on them, and there are many cases of concentration camps and of various massacres in various other countries. I think we have been quite alarmed by the recent statement by people like Gordon Brown, saying that we didn't have anything to apologise for, for the empire. Well, I haven't heard anyone apologising anyway. But I think that is a re-writing of history that we just can't accept."
(From Radio 4's Today programme, 29th May, 8.10am)