Even after the recent loss of Hong Kong, Britain still bears residual responsibility for 180,000 people in its remaining dependent territories.
Most are racked by troubles of one kind or the other. Arguments over sovereignty persist in Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. Drugs and money-laundering plague the Caribbean. Montserrat is threatened by a periodically erupting volcano. One report describes the fabric of this island society as in terminal decay. Even Barbados, popularly known as Little England, is contemplating whether to continue with the queen as head of state and whether to declare itself a republic.
At the peak of empire in 1897, Great Britain held sway over 400 million people and about a third of the globe. Since then the United Kingdom has dropped from first to fifth among the remaining colonial powers. Surprisingly, the United States is first, with eight territories, ruling nearly four million people, followed by France. Britain's colonial fate accords with many Bible prophecies written 2,500 years ago. (News sources: The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The International Herald Tribune .)
