The UK is in a difficult position over slavery centuries ago.
The UK government at the time of the abolition of slavery in the 1800s paid compensation to slave owners but nothing to slaves.
There is no doubt that many slave owners and their descendants years later gained benefits from this. I read somewhere that this loan was only finally paid off in 2015!
If we paid reparations now it would cost the UK trillions of pounds. There is absolutely no doubt about the moral nastiness of the slave trade. But these were in different times when our moral compass was far different.
Should we be paying for the sins of those living in a different age?
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It's not only slavery. Britain at least abolished slavery relatively early compared to some other countries.
The various form of enclosure acts and land clearances ruined many people's lives by stealing the common land that allowed them to live a meaningful life, forcing them into industrial degradation or crime or immigration to survive.
I have seven ancestors who were transported to Australia for little more than trying to get enough to feed their family. It destroyed all but one of those families.
Think also of the Irish potato famine. As people were fleeing the famine boats were exporting corn from the land of Irish lairds.
We can't fix the crimes of the past by taxing the poor of today. After all their ancestors probably made nothing from the slave trade.
Even the descendants of former slave owners can't be held responsible for the sins of their ancestors. To do so would be vengeance not justice.
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