The Spectator’s Notes | 2 December 2006

As the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in this country approaches, Tony Blair expresses ‘deep sorrow’ for British involvement in the trade.

As the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in this country approaches, Tony Blair expresses ‘deep sorrow’ for British involvement in the trade. Extraordinary that he should feel the need to adopt such a tone when the act commemorated is something to be proud of. But his words are carefully chosen in order to avoid paying ‘reparations’ to descendants of slaves who think they deserve them. It is worth noting one thing about the reparations campaign. The campaign’s spokesman, Esther Cranford, speaks of the ‘so-called slave trade’. The term she uses is ‘the African Holocaust’, and she and her allies speak of the slave trade as ‘genocide’. Presumably, the campaigners prefer these terms because they wish to find a form of white oppression of blacks which is as bad as bad can be.