There have been a number of videos put up these past few days about the Caribbean nations demanding reparations for slavery and questioning whether David Lammy is truly impartial and so fit to represent Britain at the negotiating table. I put this video up yesterday giving my own views on these issues. Here’s my blurb
The Caribbean nations are demanding £200 billion in reparations for slavery, and the current head of the Commonwealth also wants them. Right-wing commenters have raised questions about the impartiality of Labour’s Foreign Minister, David Lammy, who has made comments suggesting that he identifies himself as a Caribbean, rather than a British person, and so will favour them.
Black Conservative Thomas Sowell has argued against the payment of reparations partly because those to whom they should be paid are dead and past help. Many of those countries demanding reparations do so because of the poor performance of their economies after independence. One of the Caribbean countries demanding them has a government that has presided over a failing economy and there have been allegations of corruption. Moreover, White westerners weren’t the only people responsible for the slave trade. By and large Black Africans were sold to us by other African nations. Our strategy for stopping them included not only warfare and invasion, but also the payment of subsidies and compensation for the loss of income from the slave trade. If reparations are to be paid, then these African nations should also pay their whack. And to stop any money disappearing into the bank accounts of corrupt politicians there should be extensive strings on them so that they are spent developing these nations’ economies.’
Since writing this I’ve come across a bit more information on this whole issue. David Lammy is of Guyanese extraction, and has joint British-Guyanese nationality. He has also stood up in parliament and said not only ‘we Caribbeans’, indicating that he identifies himself with the Caribbean nations, not Britain, but also that ‘we Caribbeans have had enough apologies. We want reparations’. This demand makes his impartiality seriously questionable if it does not totally contradict it.
As for reparations, the Caribbean nations have said that they will raise it at the upcoming Commonwealth conference, but the issue is not on the agenda. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t be raised there. The British government has also said that they are not going to pay reparations, but the right is also questioning this after Starmer handed the Chagos Island over to Mauritius, which wasn’t in the Labour manifesto. It’s possible that Lammy will resist these demands for reparations, but if he does, some in the Black community will doubtless compare this with his previous demands and see him as a sell-out.
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