If the UK has to pay reparations, will other countries?

[Controversialname]

If the UK is made to pay reparations where will that leave other nations who were or indeed still are involved in slavery?

My ancestry is 100% Irish, I'm third generation born and raised in the UK and I'm damn sure my money shouldn't pay reparations! The only reason my forbears came to the UK is because of the economic difficulties that English colonial rule forced upon the Irish.

That said, it's history now. I am a product of the United Kingdom in all it's messiness and historical unfairness. Reparations aren't the answer, we don't have enough money to pay and there can never BE enough money to pay, where would it end?

99% of the history of the human race has been of violence and unfairness. It's beyond naivety to think people born today, innocent of the crimes of those in the past will agree to be punished. I was raised in the Catholic church and being female, I'm very familiar with the concept of original sin, I Ieft that nonsense as well!

@yeaitsmeagain no it is more the specifc proposal and the consequences. £18 trillion is many many many times more than our entire GDP. What do you think would happen to public services and taxation levels if we paid that?

Then how do you think many ordinary people would react?

Well we have, in Germany, a example of what happened when a country was humilated and bankrupted by unaffordable reparations and it wasn't pretty.

So if people of today are not responsible for the actions of the past, why are the people of Germany today still paying reparations for world war two?

I do think the attitude of present day germany is miles ahead of present day UK.

I've asked German people about this, amd they've told me that they have been taught since a young age about their countries history to make sure it doesn't happen again. They also have empathy for the countries that their country hurt

They are still paying reparations as a country.

If you talk to people from the UK about what their country did in the past, the attitude is always angry , defiant and a who cares attitude.

Let's be honest, we all know that the UK is not popular wound the world, precisely because of this attitude.

People are always saying on mumsnet that they're treated badly abroad when people find out that they are English.

Wouldn't it make it safer for English people to go everywhere, if England apologised

It's so blissfully easy for anyone to point to something that happened 200 years ago, where everyone involved is long gone, and demand reparations (and without any sense of how that could ever be fairly achieved in terms of those living now).

So much easier than the same people plowing their time, energy onto making the same demands, say, about slavery today.

How about the same people demand China, and certain Arab nations stop slavery today? Slavery that is actually affecting people alive right now. Demand those nations pay reparations to those people, who are still alive where there would be a clear, direct, tangible impact. They don't even need to be writing posts on Mumsnet for that. They could actually do something. Could be protesting outside the relevant embassy, or running a letter writing campaign from through home. See how China or Qatar respond to that.

But they mostly won't...

This. African tribes enslaved members of other tribes, The Romans took slaves, so the Italians should cough up. Much of the Talmud is taken up with the treatment of slaves both Jewish and non Jewish. Where nations enslaved people of the same nationality as themselves, who should pay what to whom?...oh I forgot Egypt!

That's all been said already..

I do agree that modern slavery should be eradicated.

You're painting in very broad strokes there.

For every German person you claim to be apologetic, I could point to one who isn't and vice versa for the UK.

Perhaps these Brits you're spoken to are angry because you claim all Brits you speak to are just that way?

i mean, Nazi Germany wasn't even that long ago.

If we are to repay for something over a century and more ago, why shouldn't Germany keep paying? Etcetera etcetera.

Did they mention in passing the rise and rise in popularity of the afd among the youth in Germany? Or was that glossed over in an effort to create a better narrative?

Posters are all very defensive on here. And are all showing a very "who cares" attitude.

Do you not think it's kind of a strange attitude to have.

It's good to have empathy for other countries. Especially ones that the UK have hurt badly

Germany are still reparations for world war two to this day.

I can only speak for myself, but it is quite insulting that you seem to think the UK has an issue with feeling empathy.

I have a theory as to why you keep running into unhappy people, but I don't think you'll like it.

Do you think that some people from the UK are bit in denial about what the UK did in history.

I was looking at a different thread, and a poster wrote

"Colonisation of Australia by the UK was GOOD for Australia, the UK wanted to make people more civilised there".

It was then pointed out to her that the UK actually committed mass genocide there.

She acted like it didn't happen! She didn't want to see it so she acted like it didn't happen

Sorry, this ⬆️. Having lived in Africa, I agree with you.

And yet you are still here...

Are you in the U.K.?

Germany has paid reparations. They also receiveed aid, after WW2, of billions in the form of the Marshall plan. They were specifically given aid to ensure that the country could do 2 things.
1,have an economy that worked so that reparations could be paid.
2.to ensure that the events between the wars, ie the rise of the Nazis following economic collapse did not take place.
In other words the aim was not to bankrupt Germany.
BTW I'm of an age where I knew people on both sides who had fought in WW2. Or who had been sent concentration camps.

I pointed out that nearly every poster on this thread has talked about - how the UK shouldn't have to pay reparations.

None of the posters even acknowledged the suffering that the UK has caused other countries.

That is a lack of empathy

And so are you..

Believing that paying reparations is unrealistic is not the same as not having empathy.

Its that false equivalence that gets people's backs up.

And some of us understand that history mostly consists of truly horrific events.

Though if we are to talk about countries who have made other countries suffered, I look forward to the US response when you approach them on that issue.

Let's look at facts.

Countries are asking the UK for reparations.
That's a fact.

Wouldn't the empathetic thing to do : be to even look at why they want reparations.

What are they asking it for. Who has suffered?

But no all of the posts on here are "I'm not paying reparations!"

That is a distinct lack of empathy

Germany is paying reparations agreed back in 1952, hardly an action that Germans living today have pushed for. Also, Germany refuses consistently to agree to paying reparations to Poland and Greece for what they did in WW2.

So let's recap, Germany is honoring it's 1952 agreement to pay some reparations for the war it started less than a decade before, for which the aggressors were all alive to be a part of (as opposed to people dead for a few hundred years) but in current times, Germany is outright refusing to honor demands to make reparations to Poland and Greece.

So Germany is not quite the perfectly reformed global citizen. I'm shocked.

Well no, people are pointing out that the country literally doesn't even have that much money.

Again, so defensive and reflective!

Can you admit that the UK has done anything wrong in the past?