The Guardian’s self-laceration is embarrassing to watch

The Guardian is currently engaged in an orgy of sanctimonious breast-beating. After two years’ research commissioned by its proprietor, the Scott Trust, it has discovered that its founding editor John Edward Taylor and some of his backers had ‘extensive links’ to slavery. This has caused something like a nervous breakdown in the paper’s York Way offices. The editor, Katharine Viner, writes that the revelation made her ‘sick to my stomach’. The paper’s staff are said to be ‘tormented’ by the thought. There have been abject public apologies, promises of amendment, and all the usual apparatus of cringing self-laceration.

What is the problem? The Guardian was founded in 1821 as a radical Manchester paper. Nineteenth century Manchester was the great boom town of the British industrial revolution. It was also the chief home of British political radicalism. Its fortunes were built on textiles, and in particular cotton. John Edward Taylor had been a partner in a successful firm of Manchester cotton merchants.