told you it was coming.

[Old Greg]

Well you suggested I might be ok with ignoring war crimes, I pointed out we normally just prosecute the guilty not their descendants.

If the calculation is done fairly then "Gammonflakes" would probably be ok as it would just be zeroed out because pretty much all our rich ancestors were guilty.

Lets move on and fix today's problems. There are plenty of them.

I don't want to prosecute anyone or anything, let alone a natural person for something their ancestors did. That you raise the matter suggests something not quite right in your head. But where there are relevant state or corporate bodies that are still in existence, it would be fun to work out what their liabilities would be.

[SueEllen]

FTFY, then stand back and listen to the squeals.

I'm safe as far as I know, my family never owned slaves.

But you may be descended from a slave owner by other means. Remember some slave owners descendants aren't white.

BTW everyone in Britain was compensating slave owners for the abolition of slavery until 2015.

[SueEllen]

I don't want to prosecute anyone or anything, let alone a natural person for something their ancestors did. That you raise the matter suggests something not quite right in your head. But where there are relevant state or corporate bodies that are still in existence, it would be fun to work out what their liabilities would be.

Tate and Lyle? Companies like Allied British Foods? Chocolate makers like Kraft?

[Old Greg]

So any slaves used in the new world / Africa are nothing to do with the UK as we have either lost it in war or released it from our ex empire then?

Sorted

Look forward to repayments from the French, Algerian, Tunisians etc.

The UK still controls territories in the "New World". Whether Jamaica (for example) assumed theoretical liabilities for slavery on independence would need some international constitutional expertise. As for the trans-Atlantics slave trade, you would find plenty of UK corporate bodies that were involved, as well as the UK state.

[Old Greg]

But you may be descended from a slave owner by other means. Remember some slave owners descendants aren't white.

BTW everyone in Britain was compensating slave owners for the abolition of slavery until 2015.

That's entirely different. These were upstanding gentlemen and ladies deprived of their lawful property.

[SueEllen]

That's entirely different. These were upstanding gentlemen and ladies deprived of their lawful property.

Yep - nice middle class people - Legacies of British Slave-ownership


Did cost us a lot -
The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed | World news | The Guardian

The compensation of Britain’s 46,000 slave owners was the largest bailout in British history until the bailout of the banks in 2009. Not only did the slaves receive nothing, under another clause of the act they were compelled to provide 45 hours of unpaid labour each week for their former masters, for a further four years after their supposed liberation. In effect, the enslaved paid part of the bill for their own manumission.

[Old Greg]

Yep - nice middle class people - Legacies of British Slave-ownership


Did cost us a lot -
The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed | World news | The Guardian

"Apprenticeship" or some such.

[vetran]

I don't want to prosecute anyone or anything, let alone a natural person for something their ancestors did. That you raise the matter suggests something not quite right in your head. But where there are relevant state or corporate bodies that are still in existence, it would be fun to work out what their liabilities would be.

You are the one suggesting that legislation should be retrospective. I pointed out that there was no one from the transatlantic African slave trade alive to prosecute. Seems a sensible observation to me. In fact since the British made slavery illegal and forced that morality on the world 200 years ago after millennia of slavery its pretty much done.

Yes we could prosecute states or corporate bodies if we wanted, but as pointed out there are very few clean hands out there. How much do you charge a corporate body that may have profited from slaves, do we look at their profit margins with slaves and mechanisation? Do we know if the industrial revolution would have started earlier if labour costs had risen?

I see Hugo Boss & IG Farben are still profitable maybe they should pay reparations for their involvement in war crimes/

Its divisive and foolish not fun.

[vetran]

But you may be descended from a slave owner by other means. Remember some slave owners descendants aren't white.

BTW everyone in Britain was compensating slave owners for the abolition of slavery until 2015.

Yes because when abolitionists wanted to change the law to outlaw slavery that was the agreement the UK government made to make it happen.

[SueEllen]

Yes because when abolitionists wanted to change the law to outlaw slavery that was the agreement the UK government made to make it happen.

Sorted- so then the British government needs to compensate descendants of slaves, and the British government needs to get some of the money everyone paid to the slave owners from the companies and individuals whose ancestors were slave owners to form part of this compensation....