The anthem of Empire has provided the background music to British politics, culture and life since James Thomson composed Rule, Britannia in 1740. It was used as a cement to keep the Union alive at home, and to create the very idea of Britishness, as Linda Colley showed in her book Britons. It played a seminal role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party – Disraeli wielded it to devastating effect in his Crystal Palace speech of 1872, when he set out the tasks of the party as to “maintain our institutions, to uphold the Empire and to elevate the condition of the people”. Margaret Thatcher showed she could whistle it when she urged us to “Rejoice! Rejoice!” in 1982. As monarchy and Empire have faded away together, so the foundations of the Conservative party have looked ever shakier.It was not so much that Empire and the imperial experience was dominant; but that it coloured so much of life, from food to music to the English language It was all-pervasive.

What is all this for? The end of Hong Kong as a British base and a British strategic interest makes a serious rethink all the more timely.The lack of any clear strategic thought about Britain after Empire masks a deeper silence: the silence that comes when a piece of music is over. Douglas Hurd could still speak about punching above our weight in the 1990s; the Royal Navy has this year sent a massive flotilla half way around the world to prove it can still project force into the South China Sea; we have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, nuclear weapons, and intelligence services designed to maintain a global presence on budget terms. There is a kind of silence.The silence is partly the result of a positive factor: the widespread lack of imperial nostalgia in Britain. Despite the fact that we sometimes seem to the outside world to be perpetually looking backwards, there is very little sense of loss in Britain. For France, decolonisation was often painful and bloody, notably in Indo-China and Algeria; and it continues to be a painful subject.Yet this silence is also the result of a negative factor: the lack of systematic consideration at any point of what should come after Empire. The name “Empire” went 50 years ago; most of the colonies followed in the 1960s.

The return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule marks the (almost) definitive end, however, reducing the population of British-ruled territories abroad to less than 200,000: just fly-specks on the map.
Yet this process, a momentous change by any historical standard, has stirred remarkably little emotion, interest even, in Britain. For the last century the Empire has been in decline, first slowly, and then, after the Second World War, rapidly. But he believes that it is all a matter of power, and that is how it should be. “Colonialism means: when you’re weak, you have to give something up. When you’re no longer weak, of course you have to take it back It’s a must.”. So the curtain finally falls on the greatest empire the world has ever known And you may well think: so what? Who cares? Or even: good. If they come here being unruly and arrogant, they will need us to support them.”Above all, there is a quiet sense of triumph that a gross historical wrong is finally being righted – even if in a strangely skewed way Mr Tsang describes Communist China as “oppressive”.

I can only think of myself as Hong Kong Chinese.”For many years, Mr Tsang sent food and money to relatives on the poverty- stricken mainland. Even today, he feels that affluent Hong Kong is playing from a position of strength “China still needs us more than we need them. The inequality was always there.”He insists that this is “an exciting moment”. He will, he says, watch tonight’s midnight handover ceremony on television. From his balcony he will see the giant fireworks display that will light up the Hong Kong sky. And yet, he also emphasises that he feels separate from the mainland Chinese – the people who still live in the country where he and many other Hong Kongers were born “I don’t know what they will be like I don’t associate myself with them.

Mr Tsang himself believes that Mr Patten was “very good, fighting on behalf of the [Hong Kong] Chinese”. But, when looking back over the grand sweep of history, few Hong Kongers are ready to take Mr Patten entirely in isolation and to forget what came before.Mr Tsang says he was “tamed” by the British. But, after living in their power since 1912, he does not hide his pleasure that they are going at last “It’s a good feeling Now, Hong Kong will be ruled by Chinese In the past, all the rules were made by the British. She herself, born in 1956, recalls being treated as a second-class citizen in her own country within the past 20 years, and the resentment that she felt. “While we were growing up, the superiority complex of the British was very strong.”Chris Patten, the outgoing Governor who will tonight sail off with the Prince of Wales on the royal yacht Britannia, is warmly spoken of by many in the territory. And yet, it is difficult not to feel that politeness has got the better of him, in the presence of his British visitors today.