Yet again there are calls for wicked Britain to pay eye watering sums of money for its part in the slave trade, which considering, during well over a thousand years of this country's long history, our unfortunate part in this vile trade was only a small moment of that long and varied past.
At the 2024 Commonwealth gathering in Samoa, there were demands for Britain to cough up so much of its wealth that there would be nothing left in the bank for the government to pay for anything at home such as funding pensions, the NHS, the police, welfare, armed services and much else for the running of the country. Surely the nations calling for these ridiculously vast sums must know what they are asking for is not only impossible but actually, hypocritical and a total nonsense as Britain has nothing to answer for.
During these ridiculous calls for Britain to pay up most of what wealth we currently have as compensation for its very small part in the whole history of slavery, no one ever mentions the fact it was Britain which was the first nation to state that this evil trade was wrong and many, along with William Wilberforce, began to campaign against slavery. After a long battle in Parliament, on the 25th March 1807 an Act of Parliament was passed to abolish the slave trade. Britain and its people were the first to stand up against slavery but no one ever thanks us for this noble act, they just tell us how vile we were and demand huge sums of our dwindling wealth. If Keir Starmer and his totally useless Labour government give way on this he will be betraying not only our noble stance on banning slavery but also the taxpayers and people of Britain today.
As stated in Deuteronomy 24:16 in the Bible: "Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin." The sins of our ancestors were theirs, nor ours and all this is in the past. Those that suffered at the hands of the slavers are long gone, their descendants are now living totally different lives in freedom and have not suffered, many of whom are doing quite well and have made good lives, so why should those living in the UK now pay for the sins of their fathers? Those who were wronged have passed into history and no more.
The cost of eradicating slavery for this country was vast, in todays terms it would be the equivalent of running into £billions, in order to pay for this noble endeavour the nation went into massive debt. The freedom of the slaves was paid for by the British people for over two centuries and this debt was not fully paid until 2015, which is staggering to consider that taxpayers of today have actually contributed financially to the cost of eradicating the slave trade.
It also has to be remembered that a substantial part of the massive cost to Britain was to fund the cost, both financially and in the lives of the sailors of the Royal Naval patrols, which spent the following sixty years from 1807 hunting and finding slavers still operating and freeing those taken for the slave trade. The rescuing of the unfortunate souls who were being transported, in wretched conditions, to a life of misery was at a cost of one Royal Navy sailor for every nine slaves freed by the British. Many of the slaves were headed for the Americas where the slave trade continued until the end of the American civil war in 1865.
If the overtaxed people of Britain are bullied into paying money as reparations then certain questions need to be asked. First, considering the cost to the nation of eradicating slavery, why should we have to pay for something no one living today was responsible for? Also, if Britain has to pay, will we be thanked and receive payments in return for the very substantial cost to Britain for leading the world against slavery? Then what about the Italians and Egyptians, who should they give £billions to for their past in slavery? Not to forget the people of Devon, Cornwall and Southern Ireland who should be paid huge amounts by the Arab nations who took many of their ancestors as slaves. The whole concept is madness, it is the past and is gone, no one owes anyone anything for the sins of their fathers.