What could the UK be asked to pay?

[Pelican Press 0]

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What could the *** be asked to pay?

Keir Starmer has faced renewed calls for Britain to

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which could far exceed £200 billion as the

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gets underway.

A group of 15 Caribbean governments,

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or ‘Caricom’ organisation, have all agreed to table reparations on the Chgom agenda when the group meets.

Defying the ***, with Sir Keir saying he does not want to discuss the matter, a draft communique for the summit places it firmly on the agenda, reading: “Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”

All three candidates for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General role

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and colonialism.

Earlier this month, Barbados’s prime minister met with King Charles at Buckingham Palace in London where she said they discussed the matter of reparations, and where she suggested a far higher figure.

Here’s everything you need to know about the debate:

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Protest in the Caribbean during a recent Royal tour (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Britain’s history with Barbados

Barbados became Britain’s first ****** society in 1661 and the first colony to have a “****** code” which enshrined in law that ******** people would be treated as chattel property and not human beings.

A number of British ships carrying trafficked ******** people from the continent first stopped in Barbados and

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.

Members of the British

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and *** governments were involved in the trafficking and ***** of millions of ******** people for profit for centuries.

The captives were abducted and transported across the Atlantic to be sold as slaves to work on plantations across its

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and

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colonies.

The same ships then returned to Britain carrying ******-grown produce including sugar, tobacco and cotton, then sold for profit that was pumped into Britain’s economy and infrastructure, as well as the coffers of aristocratic families.

Elizabeth I became involved in the lucrative dealings of John Hawkins, one of Britain’s first ****** traders in the 16th century, with various figures and institutions across society being involved in the practice, right through to its abolition in 1834.

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While it has been widely acknowledged that chattel slavery was wrong, reparation activists argue that practical amendments to these wrongs are required. (National Park Service/Reuters)

What are reparations?

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are the act or process of making amends for a wrong.

Britain was involved in the trafficking and ***** of millions of ******** people for profit for centuries. Campaigners, governments and descendants of the enslaved argue that practical amendments to the atrocities of slavery are required.

These calls have intensified in recent years with the advent of social media, politicians becoming more vocal on the topic and the growing *********** sentiment sweeping across former British colonies in the Caribbean.

Far from just being about money, reparations denote the need to address contemporary inequalities faced by descendants of enslaved ******** people in particular, which is steeped in the legacy of colonialism.

Caricom has a

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which maps out the recompense that should be carried out by ********* governments.

Why £200b – £19tr?

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, proceeds from the enslavement of ******** people funded the infrastructure of Britain.

Experts have made numerous estimations for reparations amounts over the years with varied projections about what appropriate amounts may look like.

Reverend Dr Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge, hit headlines earlier this year when he claimed that Britain owed £205 billion in reparations.

Last year, a report authored by Patrick Robinson, a leading judge at the International Court of Justice, declared that the *** should pay $24tn (£18.8tn) for its slavery involvement in 14 countries.

The study was carried out by the Brattle Group, an ********* consultancy firm, and supported by the ********* Society of International Law and the University of the West Indies.

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Britain was involved in the trafficking and ***** of millions of ******** people for profit for centuries (PA)

What is Britain’s response?

Successive British governments and monarchs have declined to apologise formally for the country’s mass enslavement of ******** people.

This week, Keir Starmer has

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When asked about the prime minister’s view on the matter, his spokesperson reportedly said on Monday: “We do not pay reparations.”

The British Royal Family have expressed sympathies over the atrocity of slavery; most recently, Charles III described his “profound sorrow” about it

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– before he became monarch – and Prince William referred to the trade in ****** lives

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.

Last April, Charles indicated his support for research into the royals’ links with slavery.

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The concept of reparations is typically broken down into five components that are all acknowledged by the ******* Nations. (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Who has engaged with the reparations demands?

A few British institutions have agreed to offer versions of redress for their role in slavery, including the

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, Greene King pub and brewing company, the

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and

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.

A handful of aristocratic British families with links to slavery have also apologised and attempted to make financial donations by way of amends, such as former BBC journalist

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, and the

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.

And last summer, the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander,

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, though the country’s prime minister, Mark Rutte, said the government would not pay reparations, going against recommendations made by an advisory panel in 2021. The Dutch government is currently being sued for this.

‘Britain helped to end slavery,’ historians argue, so why pay reparations?

Slavery did not end purely because of English benevolence, but largely because enslaved ******** people resisted through revolts and the barbaric practice was becoming untenable.

Other factors

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include the realisation among an emergent middle class that the trade was not economically beneficial to them, while wider opinion about slavery began to shift as its blood-curdling horrors became public knowledge.

Reparations have never been paid to those who were enslaved or their descendants and this is why campaigners’ demands for it continue.

On the other hand, the British government did agree to pay a generous compensation package of £20 million to the ****** owners for the loss of their “property”.

The Bank of England administered the payment of slavery compensation on behalf of the British government and ****** owners were paid approximately £20 million in compensation – about £300 million in today’s money – in more than 40,000 awards for enslaved people freed in the colonies of the Caribbean.

This amounted to some 40 per cent of the Treasury’s annual income – one of the largest loans in history – and the British taxpayer only finished paying this off in 2015.

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#asked #pay

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