Here in Scotland the word slaver (spelled slaver or slaiver or slever) means to drool or talk nonsense. Well, last week PM Andy Burnham had some tired old slaver about slavery.
Andy Burnham said, in one of his most mealy-mouthed statements that
“British people cannot be made to pay for the wrongs of slavery”
Apparently we must ‘confront’ a complicated history. Which simply adds a nothing burger. It’s what you might do to a teenager who dropped litter...
Note he does not mention that many established British institutions and historically wealth families including the Royal family still live off the proceeds of that murderous 4-century long abomination.
I recall the bicentenary ‘celebrations’ of the end of the Atlantic slave trade to the British Colonies in 1807 though in reality chattel slavery did not officially end until 1833. And the last recorded transatlantic voyage of slaves from Africa was in 1867.
Here in Edinburgh there still stands the Melville Monument to Henry Dundas who, as Home Secretary successfully delayed the abolition of slavery by 15 years. Imagine, if you dare, how many more slaves were beaten, raped, separated from family, murdered, worked to death etc in that ‘bonus’ decade and a half.
What is euphemistically described as a ‘tug of war’ between the wealthy descendants of the Dundas family and Edinburgh council is in fact no such thing. While those who toppled the Colston Statue in 2020 were criminally charged (thankfully unsuccessfully) When the wealthy Dundas beneficiaries of slavery vandalised a plaque placed on the monument to explain its presence, they were invited to the City Council Chambers for tea and chat.
I avoid walking through St Andrews square where this hideous monument stands. Ironically, the only appropriate element is the ridiculous phallic plinth because the systemic centuries-long ordeal of rape of slave women, such significant element of the African/Caribbean and American Slave abomination, is accidentally represented here.
I assume Burnham’s statement is due to Charlie tampon’s visit to the Caribbean.
Of course we can’t really pass without a mention of the ridiculous Kemi Badenoch and her statement that Britain has had enough of apologising for Slavery. Badenoch is the current top Tory and leader of The Conservative party. And that is not much of a crow since Boris Johnson systematically purged the Tories of any talent or credibility during his catastrophic term of gold wallpaper leadership and covid betrayals. But I would simply add that the descendants of slaves are also sick of these very empty apologies, so on that Badenoch and I agree though not in the way she might imagine.
Until some backbone is displayed on this issue the poisonous ever-present legacy of racism it left behind will not be expunged either.
Let us be clear, it’s not the British people as a whole who need to pay but the wealthy families and institutions, including the Church of England where integrated wealth can easily be traced to slavery that could be targeted.
If only there were the will.
(Henry Dundas - 1st Viscount Melville - rape/murder monument Edinburgh's St Andrew's Square)
As long as the Dundas Statue blights the Edinburgh sky line and party leaders of all hues trot out their regular empty platitudes, I will never believe there is any shame or sorrow at the unimaginable suffering of so many millions for so many centuries.