The Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Sir Hilary Beckles, has pointed out that the taxes of many descendants of slaves in the UK have been used to repay the compensation loan, which he called “the greatest act of political immorality”.
He means the Windrush Generation of course. He is outraged that all those who migrated from the Caribbean to the UK for a better life became UK taxpayers and in that way their taxes went towards paying-down the remainder of the money borrowed to compensate slave owners for freeing their slaves. That didn’t finish until 2015.
Okay, if he thinks that’s immoral then clearly he won’t want to see them being forced to contribute to whatever reparations are agreed.
So anybody of Caribbean descent will be exempt.
While we’re at it, why not exempt everyone in the UK of African descent? Why should anyone from, say Nigeria, be paying money to the Caribbean to compensate them for historic slavery?
There are others it would be morally wrong to force to pay. Anyone from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, for example?
So, only white people should pay?
What if a white person was married to a person of colour? Do they only pay half? Or if they had a grandparent who was from the Caribbean, do they get a 25% discount?
But what about Ireland. If anyone has a claim for historic wrongs, you would think they would. So why should Irish people living in the UK pay reparations to the Caribbean?
The same could be said of the many Polish immigrants who have come and settled here so successfully. They had no part whatsoever in historic slavery, so why should they have to pay? It’s more complicated for French citizens since their country was also heavily involved in slavery, but in due time France may also be required to pay reparations, so do they have to pay twice?
By the time you’ve eliminated everyone who can be excused contributing towards reparations, there are very few left.
