Should King Charles stump up?

[faferandom]

All this talk of reparations from one of the world’s richest men!!!! I don’t think the British taxpayer should stump up, but I do think the King could sell a palace and fund permanently a huge amazing high school for the Caribbean….thoughts?

You don't get to tell me where to post....

Absolutely agree

The arab muslim slave trade lasted from the 7th century to the 20th. An estimated 10 - 18 million africans were forcibly moved to the middle east. If we pay, they should pay. They were worse than us and their slave trade lasted longer. The British were the country that led to the abolishment of slavery. Then again, I'm all for Charlie paying up. If he gave away all his wealth, he'd still be a billionaire by this time next year

No one from this country should be paying reparations for something that happened over 150 years ago and we were instruental in ending. Nations have been doing bad shit to each other all through history, it's not fair but it is just the way it is. A couple of palaces wouln't even begin to satisfy those who want compensation and would open the floodgates for more demands - on a purely practical level we can't afford it.

It would be much better to focus efforts on helping those who are actually living in slavery right now.

It isn't Charles's role to say anything unless it's sanctioned by the government. The monarch is an apolitical figurehead. This is something for the government to take a position on, not the King.

How about reparations for the Irish potato famine or the Highland clearances while we're at it?

Mongolia should stump up billions for their empire, the viking countries should pay up and don't mention the French Normans. Like someone else mentioned, why should we pay up now from modern day taxpayers money. We shouldn't be held accountable for what a few of our greedy ancestors did.

What about the Germans should they be held accountable for the atrocities in the war? We can go on and on and on.

More useful I would have thought to put some effort into disrupting modern slavery.
While the involvement of the UK in the slave trade is deeply regrettable as with most things it has to be viewed in terms of what was usual at the time. The UK did not act in this shameful way alone but as the King has pointed out was absolutely instrumental in bringing to an end the slave trade at that time. The UK borrowed heavily to supply our navy who we committed to this noble cause and we sustained heavy losses of personnel in our endeavours. The debt we accrued was equivalent in today’s terms of approximately 100 billion pounds and was only fully repaid in 2014. Tony Blair I believe issued an apology, the King has now signalled his regret. No person living has contributed in any way to this most appalling of smears on our national history. History is littered with injustices, hopefully we learn from them.

Why should he? It was hundreds of years ago as dreadful and heartbreaking as it was. I feel really strongly about this. I think his speech today was very good and pitched absolutely right. Also people forget that many African kings kept slaves.

No. Since Britain lead the movement for the abolition of slavery, our government purchased the slaves from their owners in multiple countries and gave them their freedom, I think we've done enough. We didn't finish paying back the money borrowed to do this until fairly recently. Anyone wanting more can FO frankly.

Britain borrowed money to compensate the slave owners for losing their enslaved people. The enslaved people themselves received absolutely nothing. Is that just tough shit then?

Absolutely nothing? They received their freedom. Freedom they wouldn't have had if they hadn't been purchased by Britain and set free. They are also all long dead by now. The people wanting the money were never slaves themselves. Stop being grabby.