Is Blair right to apologise?

Question

Is it right to say sorry for Britains involvement in the slave trade 300 years ago

Answer 1

is blair right to start a war in iraq?
is blair right to start a career in being a presidant
is blair right to start a career at all?
is blair right at all?

Answer 2

He is right to express regret but not to apologise.
With all this there are several important aspects of our history and the facts that are there but are forgotton.
Firstly we cannot as 21st Century humans impose our moral beliefs on people who existed over 300 years ago. People have suggested that this can be compared to the holocaust and the Germans have apoligised. And while this is true, it has to be accepted what Hitler did WAS considered evil by contempary soicety. Contempary soiciety of the 16th, 17th & 18th Century found slavery acceptable. Also Romans took slaves during their occupation of Britian should we demand an apology from Italy?
Secondly, the British after abolition activley enforced the slavery ban stopping and seizing ships and nearly causing conflicts between France, Spain and the U.S this acceptance by the UK of the wrongness of slavery has not been acknowledged.
The most important point in all this is surprising. The people who practiced slavery the most in the last 500 years were not the British, French, American or Spanish but the Africans themselves. These are the same countries that demand an apology from the west when they practiced and in some countries still practice slavery. If these countries want the UK to apologise to the descendants of these people they should do the same with their own people THEY enslaved. It wont happen though as THIS page of history is conviently ignored.

Answer 3

No, but luckily he didn't give a formal apology.

For a start, while we were very involved, it was Britain who led the abolition, and I think that's much better than any apology.
Secondly, who's he apologising to? No one who was affected by the trade has been alive for hundreds of years. Quite frankly I don't see any point to him prostrating himself apart from making himself seem noble and please the far left. It's all spin.

If anyone would be apologising it's the African traders who sold the slaves in the first place (who are of course, very very dead), or the USA, who refused to abolish slavery until centuries after every other civilised nation, and only then after a civil war. Also, it was only there where slaves were used; it was never legal in Britain. I think the US has much more to answer for than us, but you could bet your life Bush, the Texan he is, would never do any apology.

Answer 4

This is typical of the hypocrite that Bliar is,he is trying to enslave us with his security laws and has got the brass neck to apologise for the slave trade which was carried out by many countries and by the Africans themselves. This is usual bulls*it by Bliar who will do and say anything for his 'legacy'. Will he ask for an apology for us from Italy for the Romans, Scandanavia for the Vikings and France for the Normans? I am sure he would be told to 'grow up'by these countries. This is the same stunt as he pulled by apologising to the Irish for the potato famine,this man might be better employed dealing with the many things he personally has done wrong like getting involved in the Iraq war leading to the deaths of thousands not least British Service people.

Answer 5

Hi Alan R

Absolutely not!! Slavery was and is an abomination, but we do not have the same mindset as people did 300 years ago. We were an imperial power and anyone else was an underclass, just possessions to be used as seen fit.

If you give an apology then what's next?? Compensation??? How far do you go back? Do we sue the Normans for invading us 1000 years ago?? OF COURSE NOT!! Anybody that thinks so lives in cloud cuckoo land. If it were the other way around and we were enslaved would they be so quick to apologise. I dont think so.

Answer 6

Only british individual naval officers were involved in the slave trade and not britain as a nation.
So no.
Im sure the ppl asking for apologies should concentrate more on progressing with their lives instead of blaming the british empire for the fact that they get left behind.
Blair , being the weak kneed vote prostitute that he is will surely apologise for everything on the menu.
He should start by apologising for handing our country to europe and selling passports to every form of untermenschen in exchange for votes.

Answer 7

This PRAT Blair produces another ridiculous stunt to make himself appear as a caring , Responsible Human Being , which maybe true in parts he "Cares" for the New Labour S H I T which is ruining our country at breathtaking speed . Any form of "Apology" should be to the Indigenous Population of the United Kingdom , which he and his Lying , Cheating cronies obviously detest . Turning our country into a third world TIP .

Answer 8

He wasn't there at the time the slave trade happened and only knows about the matter from archaeological evidence and he should say sorry because he is the prime minister of England and should answer these kind of questions but he wasn't there at the time so he shouldn't really be the one apologising because he doesn't exactly know 100 % of what happened at the time because he wasn't there.

Answer 9

If he's apologising for the slave trade from 300 years ago, he needs to apologise to all disabled people who were locked in asylums and women who were treated as property long after the slave trade ceased!!! And lets not forget the **** ups in HIS MODERN GOVERNMENT!!!!

Answer 10

It's not really an apology, because if it was an apology then they'd have to be some sort of payment, for example, no third world debt or suppressing trade from third world countries. I suppose Blair wants black people to head off to the Army recruting office to go to Iraq and Afghanistan. Can't see that S.H.I.T happening!

Answer 11

Even if he says sorry now, will the message really get through to the Black people who died and were treated badly. NOPE. But Britain has made so many mistakes, they invaded India, the carrabean, Africa etc and colonised them during the British Empire.