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?

Tell you what! We can cut the overseas aid budget. We won't have one. 7.2 billion last year.

Yes but it's not just about the people.

The actions that the UK did, have caused long lasting damage that affects countries to this day

At no point have I said "I am not paying reparations" I, and others, have pointed out that if reparations for slavery should be paid, there are many other countries who also took slaves and sold them or used them.

And those people are also entitled to ask for reparations if they want.

At the moment, countries are asking the UK for reparations.

I’m not so sure. Not everyone was a rich slave-owner. Think of Victorian street urchins, or children who worked in coal mines or factories. Should their descendants (quite possibly still among the poorest in our society) suffer in any way because of slavery? If so, why?

It is, because I don't appreciate my country being dragged through the mud. I also don't appreciate attempts to con it out of lots of money because of what long-dead people did in the distant past. It is not fair that people today should pay for the sins of their ancestors. And I don't like the hatchet job on Britain's reputation. We should be judged on where we are as a society today, not on the societies of long ago. Some people just hate Britain and are jealous of it.

How so?

The whole idea of reparations is absurd. Where does it end? Do we demand reparations from Italy for the native Celts who were taken as slaves by the Romans or from the French for the Norman crimes against the Saxons?

If those who committed crimes are dead, and ownership of any lands/property cannot be determined, then we just have to let it go.

Modern war crimes can be solved, there are living witnesses and evidence. The owners of property ransacked from the Jews in Germany can be traced and have their family heirlooms restored to them because there are records.

Items of cultural or religious significance at a national level should be returned, through negotiation. - human remains, Elgin marbles etc.

But trying to make reparations when both slaver and slave have been dead for centuries is simply impractical in my view.

So where do you propose they take it from? If it’s being used for reparations, it won’t be being used for something else that would presumably benefit the current citizens.

Not 'people', no...

Read the thread.

I already answered it twice.

and my response would be precisely what I have already said.

@Danajune11 seems to have an odd notion that there is a pot somewhere labelled 'the govt's money' that can be used to pay reparations.

There isn't. We have a lot of debt. No cash, other than the money that comes in from income tax and fuel duty and VAT, and is used to pay for pothole repairs, the NHS and senior schools.

Any money diverted to 'reparations' means a school roof won't get mended, someone won't get their chemotherapy and a road won't be repaired. Or the tax burden poor people in the UK pay, will be increased to cover the extra bill.

How much money has already been sent out by the UK in international aid?

I object because governments asking for money are CFs, not because of practicalities. They've got a bdy nerve.

The amount requested was £70 Trillion which is £70,000,000,000,000 , or £10.6 million from each person in the UK. (There are 66 million of us.)

Where is that coming from?

As someone from a completely working class background whose family history is Irish famine, Scottish clearances, Northumberland and Durham miners and not a jot of foreign or Upper-class ancestry in my DNA/extensive family tree, I would like to claim that amount myself for the injustices and exploitation inflicted on my family. That'll be ok then too?

It's ludicrous behaviour.

The actions that the UK did, have caused long lasting damage that affects countries to this day

Can you break that down for me and be a bit more specific? Which actions exactly are you refering to in each individual country, and what is the ongoing impact on the residents of these countries?
I mean specifics, not another general colonialism = bad statement.

Yes, but people who hate the UK and its citizens don't care about that. They think the UK people of today SHOULD suffer because nasty ancestors. Thank God our government has the sense to say no. Would be better if they said "Sod off, you cheeky fuckers" but that probably wouldn't be good for international relations.

I would like to claim that amount myself for the injustices and exploitation inflicted on my family. That'll be ok then too?

Of course not, you've got your white privilige to sustain you.

I'd like compensation for the deaths in my family in the British forces during numerous wars, those who starved in the Irish famines, those who were forced to leave their homes, who died from accidents in pits, mining-related diseases, abject poverty exploited by wealthy landowners/pit owners, the dead children.

Should the government cough up for that? You'll all have to chip in mind and then I'll chip in for all of yours.

Loads of people from former colonies now live in the U.K.

Everything every country has done in the last 500 years has caused long-term damage to itself, it's working class people and to any other country it has been involved with.

Wars, pollution, poverty, disease, deaths, long-term repression, environmental damage, economic damage, exploitation of natural resources (of all kinds).

Most Western countries have also paid hundreds of billions support many of the other countries exploited by them or in difficult circumstances- it's called Overseas Aid. The EU pays billions additionally every year suppirted poorer EU countries. Eurpean countries and the US paid to re-build Europe after both World Wars, as we do after every terrible war event- as we will in Gaza when this war ends. We have already paid billions to Commonwealth countries to support them in many different ways.

Much of that money has been wasted by some countries, siphoned off into bribes and arms and not used to help people, build infrastructure.

You sound very uninformed.

We can’t afford to pay them. For gods sake the uk is swimming in debt, public services need a reorganisation, we borrow money just to stand still.

Imagine if income tax /VAT increase to cover a reparations or the introduction of a reparation tax being added to everyone’s tax bill. Political suicide