[WillowTheWhisp]

As Doug and Margaret both so rightly say we cannot apologise for the actions of our ancestors, or in some cases not even our ancestors but just people who happened to live then in a country we inhabit now. We are not responsible for anything done by people in the past any more than any of us are responsible for what somebody in the next town, next street or even next door is doing today.

We can only be responsible for ourselves. Nobody has any right to apologise to anyone on my behalf either!

I made a point about this one time when I was in Ireland, coming as I do from Accy and speaking with more than a hint of a Lancashire accent I was told by someone at a political meeting that "you people persecuted us". My response to that was that I personally have never persecuted anyone but if he implied that my ancestors may have persecuted his ancestors I had to point out that at the time some of my ancestors could very well have been alongside some of his ancestors on the receiving end of some persecuting. It doesn't do to jump to wild conclusions.