The difference between justice and a political shakedown lies in whether the proposed remedy actually helps the people it is intended to help and whether it is based on legal and moral principles that are applied consistently.
A payment to Caribbean governments that may or may not reach ordinary people, funded by a mechanism that cannot be implemented without violating equality law, justified by a legal case that does not exist, demanded primarily from Britain despite other nations bearing greater historical culpability, is not justice. It is a transfer of money from British taxpayers to Caribbean governments, dressed in the language of justice but serving primarily the political and financial interests of the campaign’s organisers.
Genuine justice would look different. It would be targeted at the actual beneficiaries. It would be funded through a legally and morally coherent mechanism. It would be proportional to actual historical responsibility. And it would be designed to produce measurable improvements in people’s lives rather than to satisfy a political demand.
