<
https://theconversation.com/tory-mps-historic-family-links-to-slavery-raise-questions-about-britains-position-on-reparations-212469>
"“Reparations have been paid for other wrongs and obviously far more quickly,
far more speedily than reparations for what I consider the greatest atrocity
and crime in the history of mankind: transatlantic chattel slavery.” So noted
the eminent Jamaican international jurist Judge Patrick Robinson, when
launching the 115-page
Brattle Report in June 2023.
The economic consultancy, The Brattle Group, was asked to draw up a report
estimating the scale of reparations that should be paid for the chattel trade
between 1510 to 1870, covering 31 countries that engaged in transatlantic
slavery. This would include compensation for loss of life and liberty,
uncompensated labour, personal injury, mental pain and anguish and gender-based
violence.
The
Brattle Report estimated that the UK – which was the biggest slave
trading nation up to 1807 and did not abolish slave ownership in the empire
until 1834 – should pay a reparations bill of £18.5 trillion. To put that into
context, the estimated annual GDP for the UK for 2023 is about £2.5 trillion
and the entire worth of the UK – its land, infrastructure and everything in it
was estimated by the Office for National Statistics at £10.7 trillion in 2020.
But then centuries of value derived from the trade in human beings produced for
Britain an equally unimaginable sum. The British government borrowed £20
million in 1833 to compensate slave owners, which amounted to a massive 40% of
the Treasury’s annual income or about 5% of British GDP. According to the
Treasury, the loan was only finally paid off in 2015.
The wealth created by the slave trade and the plantations continues to shape
British society to this day and, in some cases, remains in the hands of
families whose ancestors were involved in buying and selling slaves and running
enterprises based on slave labour. One example is the Drax family of the
Charborough Estate in Dorset, which is now owned by Conservative MP, Richard
Drax."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
