The Black Jack

Andy Burnham says, in a new Guardian opinion piece, that he is “open to” the “calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state” for the transatlantic slave trade which began almost HALF A MILLENNIUM ago. This would be like someone in the year 2526 having to apologise for heinous acts conducted today. It is ridiculous. It goes without saying that the transatlantic slave trade was an awful part of global history. But it is also a part of history for which we have already atoned, multiple times over, as one of the world’s pioneers in abolishing the slave trade and indeed policing, through our West Africa Squadron and others – an endeavour that cost up to 2% of Britain’s GDP every year for decades to come. Now think about all the aid money we have supplied across the world since. Billions upon billions. And lest we forget the lives Britain has put on the line over the centuries since: our own people, who sacrificed everything, to keep the free world free. This is a time of year we remember those sacrifices instead of grovelling to anyone who demands it over something of which no Briton alive played any part. Yet Burnham is still “open” to making humiliating public pronouncements on Britain’s behalf. I say no. I say enough. One of the biggest problems we face today is that we are no longer a forward-looking nation. We only ever seem to lament our past, or condemn those who came before us. I cannot abide it any longer. Britain is exceptional. We are a moral force in the world. We have given so much, and sacrificed for centuries. It is now time to put the Britsh people first, instead of caving to every demand that we get on our knees.