this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

No fucking way

“Slavery is abhorrent … there’s no question about that. But I think from my point of view and taking the approach I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past.”

So all the resources that were pillaged which puts them in positions whereby they can't roll up their sleeves and work on current issues are just to be ignored.

I don't understand why he has to be so tone-deaf in the way he speaks about things like this. Holy fuck, hire a decent PR team.

And let's not forget the British government paid reparations to the slave owners.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

And let's not forget the British government paid reparations to the slave owners.

Which was a very good move?

It set slaves free, put the issue to bed, and prevented large scale wars (where slaves were often drafted in). Just look at the US Civil War.

After that, the UK spent a huge amount of money on actively preventing slavery on a huge scale. Not only banning it, but outlawing trade related to it, actively hunting slavery ships (the policing of which cost many lives), etc.

There literally hasn't been another anti-slavery force in history that even comes close.

The UK's involvement with the slave trade beforehand is obviously bad, but the UK's measures to stop slavery were fantastic.

E: sorry guys, I guess very effectively and efficiently ending slavery was a bad thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

This is my perspective too. "Compensating" slave owners was terrible, but the loss of life from the American approach was far more terrible.