You don’t have the guts. That was the put-down from Victor Gao, a well-connected Chinese pundit, on the Today programme last week when asked about the implications of Britain’s belated tough talk over Hong Kong. The British government, he told the Radio 4 audience, was too burdened with Brexit to stand up to China.

So far, Mr Gao is right. Britain has offered only empty words in response to the heart-stirring mass protests on the streets of the former colony. The fact that demonstrators are braving arrest while waving not only the territory’s colonial-era flag but even the Union Jack shows that they care more about our values than we do.

Modern Britain remembers and studies only our empire’s dark side: exploitation, humiliation, looting and