Sierra Leone today is one of the poorest countries on the planet.
The last time I was there, veterans of the liberation generation - men and women who had risked imprisonment and death in the last years of British rule in the fight for independence - were earnestly making the case for a return to colonialism.
I guess the place has been a bit of a shambles since we left. And a few hundred Brit troops have at least stopped a few more people having their limbs hacked off. Imagine what could be done with a few thousand troops, a Governor and some District Commissioners ?
Couldn't be done of course. Brits are incapable of that sort of thing nowadays. The Guardian, Indie and BBC would have teams of reporters in Freetown looking for evidence of corruption or Brit brutality (and there would be some). Half the nations of Africa would send arms to whatever 'rebels' were currently active. And the educational factories which could turn out Hilary Hooks by the dozen sixty years ago are now producing bond dealers and futures brokers.
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