niall ferguson, the prominent scottish historian who now resides and is an american citizen, he said,t forget, the british empire shaped the modern world. it spread democracy and was significantly more benign than other empires." do you have any time for that sentiment at all? no, i don't. but i have time for niall ferguson in that i think he's mischaracterised as someone who's only got good things to say about empire, but he writes very movingly about the injustice of slavery. he writes about the tasmanian genocide, and actually, he doesn't flinch at describing some of the terrible things that happened during empire. but his overall argument of comparing one thing to another is, i think, daft. yeah. you don'tjust write history. you obviously write a lot of contemporaryjournalism. looking at the way societies work today, you are, i'm sure, more aware than anyone of the degree to which this phrase "culture wars" has captured the imagination, notjust in the uk but in many countries around the world. and it's symbolised by arguments over, for example, statues — what they represent, wheth