Conrad Black: The 'absurd' idea of paying reparations for slavery

It is unjust to expect the Europeans to bear the entire brunt of moral responsibility for that hateful practice

Canadians should not imagine that we are alone in encouraging the monster of a victimhood industry. The key is to maintain a distinction between victimization and actually being a victim. This is a vital point that was made this week by the London writer and commentator Melanie Phillips, in reference to the imbroglio that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is blundering through one of the clumsiest launches of a new government in a serious country in recent memory, has managed to get himself into. Various Commonwealth leaders of non-white states have demanded that the United Kingdom offer reparations for slavery while they were under British colonial rule. Starmer started by rejecting the demand and then made rather lame efforts to change the subject and finally conceded that it may be discussed next year. Of course, it is an absurd request. Slavery has at one time or another existed almost everywhere, and was widely practised by Indigenous peoples.