Blair and the Slave Trade Apology?

Question

Ok so we are not all barefoot in chains and worked to death with a whip anymore - We are however all overworked on long hours on low pay and can hardly pay for our daily heat, light and food. The state of the UK jobsmarket and salaries and our having to work till we drop in order to survive on our small pensions is the worst it has been for years.

We are close to becoming the worst paid people in the western world with the lonest hours and terrible employment rights.

I say we need to tackle the subject of modern day slavery by the capilaists that run the UK instead of doing a PR job saying sorry for something we had nothing to do with.

What do you think?

Answer 1

I agree totally.

In the UK today you are better off not working.

If you try to work and are on a low income not only can you not make ends meet but you get no help from the Government either.

Plus why are modern day people having to apologise for something they have not done? No it wasn't necessarily our "Ancestors" - my ancestors were all poor farmers and factory workers not one of them was involved in or made money from the Slave Trade.

Perhaps they should seek out the actual descendents of anyone who made money from the slave trade and make them apologise.

Saying all modern day Westerners should apologise for the slave trade is like saying all Muslims should apologise for the actions of Al Quaida or all Irish Catholics should apologise for the IRA's actions.

Answer 2

What is he apologising for? Slaves were sold by their own people to white traders. I accept we may need to say sorry for the treatment and the voyage. Some slaves had a better life here. Should now the Germans be made to stand up and apologise for the wars or France for its colonisation around the world. Have we not learnt the lessons and moved on. Why bring it up again and again. There is nothing we can do about the past. Why not spend the time,money and energy on the people in Africa today who die so young from starvation and illness. That would be the best way to say sorry if we need to.

Answer 3

People say, let the past stay in the past, but the past also determined the future. African 'puppet' leaders put in place by western governments won't even feed their own people but will buy weapons and sell oil to the west and will kill anyone who protests. Past events are now catching up. The rich have gotten even richer. I don't believe that slavery has ended, just look at supression on trade from Africa or third world debt. I don't care what blair does or what he says but it doesn't make me want to race off down to the Army recruting office to fight for the west against Iraq or Afghanistan, It doesn't wash with me.

Answer 4

I tend to agree. Pathetic PC lefties wanting to rake up the distant past. Don't we have enough problems to solve without doing a re-run of yesterdays problems. How can we ever achieve true integration when minority groups keep emphasising their differences from the mainstream of society. Two hundred years ago the world was very different; it was still being discovered and Africa wasn't comprised of countries. Value systems were different, life was cheap for everyone.

Apologising is a personal thing, it is what one person might do to another. Governments don't operate on the personal level. And no individual today is responsible for what happened 200 years ago to people who are no longer alive. You can't drag history into the moral context of todays world.

Answer 5

I've heard that it's not an apology as such. More saying that he feels sorrow rather than that he is sorry which is fair enough. Any speech he does make should highlight our leadership in abolishing in the slave trade as well and also how African slave masters profitted hugely from the slave trade. It's a bit crazy though. Where does it stop? Will the Italians have to apologise for the Roman Empire?

Answer 6

It's ridiculous to expect Blair or this nation to apologise for slavery.
Slavery was (and unfortunately still is) absolutely evil and aborrent but no nations should apologise in isolation.
It was African slavers that captured the slaves to sell to the Europeans.
Slavery was prominent in Africa before the Europeans ever arrived there. Moses and the Jews anyone?
Tribes throughout African history took slaves from other tribes.
Are they being forced to apologise? Of course not, that would be silly.
Evil happens, we have ended many of the evils we formerly partook in. We are all guilty so we should move on, not look for retribution or restitution.
Are the Romans going to apologise to us for conquering us 2000 years ago, are the Vikings apologising for taking British Thralls? No, that would be daft. So is this.

Answer 7

I think you are right. This apology must be cold comfort for those whose forbears suffered because of our involvement in the trade, when we import and buy goods made by sweated labour abroad.
This Government goes on about delinquent teenagers, but does little to stop the long hours culture which means many parents are not around when the kids are at home. When you get crucial workers like nurses unable to live on their wage without benefits, something is seriously wrong with our priorities.
And how hypocritical is it of Tony, when he won't aplogise for taking us into war on the sketchiest of excuses, thus making him responsible for the deaths of thousands of people?

Answer 8

I'm American and I have to admit that I don't know what the current labor situation in the UK is, but I have to say that, at the very least, Blair's apology about the UK slave trade is bloody ridiculous! Why should people apologize for what their ancestors did? One of my ancestors was William the Conqueror, so should I apologize for what he and the other Normans did to the Anglo-Saxons? I don't think so!

Answer 9

I'm TOTALLY with you, i don't know why people are moaning that he didn't say enough.... its not his fault, or anyone alive today, it was 200 years ago, why are WE saying sorry, i think what he said was good, and OK, enough........ just to admit it happened and that we are ashamed of our ancestors.....

i think we should look at the modern day slavery, like the stuff you said, but also lets look at the sex slave trade, where women (and men) are brought into this country under false pretences and made into sex slaves for rich (and not so rich) peoples use... THAT'S what we should be looking at... not what someone did 200 years ago, and trying to compare it to today, and wanting someone to blame......

Answer 10

I like the we bit.When the "we's" wake up join the unions and start some organised enforcement of existing rights and protesting to get more, plus proper remuneration for the roles being undertaken we might get somewhere.We need the young to get real.