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Should Britain pay reparations?
As the Commonwealth summit got underway on Friday, there have been renewed calls for the UK to provide reparations for its historical role in the slave trade.
The prime minister and the chancellor have ruled out “paying out” reparations – but there have been hints the government would be willing to pay out other forms of reparations.
The UK has long faced calls to provide reparations for its role in the Atlantic slave trade which saw millions of Africans enslaved and forced to work, largely on plantations in the Caribbean and Americas.
Many Commonwealth leaders ignored PM Starmer and have decided to move towards a “meaningful conversation” on the issue.
The reports have of course sparked a huge conversation within the country – and its media.
Here are the thoughts of some of the biggest publications in the country.
The UK and its role in the slave trade: WTX News coverage
Starmer’s servitude
The Prime Minister insisted slavery reparations would not be on the agenda at the summit in Samoa this week. Canny politicians from elsewhere in the Commonwealth – astute at spotting the weakest link – appear to have outsmarted him to secure a debate on the topic…Any wobble by Sir Keir should concern us all and begs the question, yet again, whether he is really up to the job. On the world stage – beyond the cosy confines of Labour Party internal politicking – he seems to struggle with the twilight arts of diplomacy, distraction and negotiation.
Right thing to do
Black MPs have told Keir Starmer that considering reparations for slavery is the “right thing to do”… Bell Ribeiro-Addy said there should be a discussion about the different ways in which reparations can be paid, such as through environmental or educational reparations. “People have heard the large sums of money and they’ve got quite scared but they haven’t thought about all the different ways in which we could go about repairing the sheer imbalance of equality that we created by taking part in the enslavement and trafficking and colonisation of countries”.
Starmer’s refusal has magnified the issue
The government’s current position puts it out of step with a number of UK institutions, such as the Church of England, the University of Glasgow and Lloyds Bank – as well as the Guardian – who, in recent years, have not only issued formal apologies but announced proposals for reparatory justice. The insistence on focusing on “current future-facing challenges” such as climate resilience and debt restructuring went down like a lead balloon with legal experts, campaigners and the Caribbean Community (Caricom). Many felt it showed a deep ignorance of what the campaign for reparative justice actually is.
No case for reparations
Such demands stand on shaky moral ground. The contention that slavery gave rise to British wealth appears unfounded, with generations of motivated activists attempting to find some way in which the Industrial Revolution and Britain’s subsequent economic growth derived from the trade, and in each case appearing to fall short… the argument that those living today have a moral responsibility to make amends for the sins of their forefathers can be rejected out of hand. Britain has not sought compensation from Denmark for the depredations of the Vikings, or from North Africa for the acts of the Barbary corsairs.
