David Lammy is going to have to decide whose side he’s on. Either them or us. The THEM is the collective of Caribbean nations demanding a preposterous £22billion in slavery reparation or the US who will be sent the bill at Commonwealth Heads of Government in Samoa in a week’s time.
The demand is an insult. All this happened hundreds of years ago and we won’t paying it and nor will we be indulging the argument. My advice is to tell Barbados and Jamaica, the leading lights with their hands out, to get stuffed nice and early. Don’t take part in a debate.
Lots of things happened in the past. If every country has to pay reparations I imagine the Russians, the Germans, the Chinese and the Iranians would be broke for thousands of years. Almost all countries, many from Africa, will have done things historically which they are not proud of today.
In any event thanks to tourism in the West Indies, I imagine the families of the people who were transported would have a difficult job proving they were worse off today than they would have been had they stayed in Africa.
David Lammy has previously spoken on the need for Britain to pay reparations
GettyA quick investigation shows the eight poorest countries in the world are all In Africa. Exactly the nations that saw their people transported.
Of course, these arguments will enrage of the people of the Caribbean who love to indulge in their favourite pastime; Accusing white Brits of racism.
But the chap facing the real issue is David Lammy, our current Foreign Secretary. You see in a Sky News clip to be found online - it looks around a decade old - Lammy is quoted as saying that as a ‘’Caribbean people we don’t want just an apology we want reparation.’’
And that is where Lammy finds himself in a degree of difficulty. It’s the use of we which I find difficult. Lammy carries two passports, Guyanan and United Kingdom. This country has done spectacularly for him. It’s a guess how he would have done had his family stayed in Guyana. There are security issues in Guyana which makes Haringey look safe.
So which way will Lammy jump. It’s clear from his public utterances that he feels the country should pay for something which happened 200 years ago as he was in favour of that statue being thrown in the harbour in Bristol.
Now, of course, he’s in the government and since, according to Starmer, we don’t have a pot to piss in, any demand from our Caribbean friends will have to be rejected.
But Lammy feels strongly about this. Or he did until he received a company car. Therefore, there is only one solution. He will have to be moved to another Ministry or be thrown out. The latter is my preferred solution.
I absolutely guarantee that if Lammy managed to convince the government to hand over one penny to the West Indies Reform would win the next election in a landslide. Labour voters would see that as a betrayal. He might even discover he has a pal in Starmer since he took the knee when Black Lives Matter was all the rage.
So my prediction is that Lammy keep out of the limelight for the next couple of weeks as he simply won’t know what to say.
One suggestion from him that reparation worth looking and the roof would fall in on him and his party.
He won’t have a political career here any longer.
And Starmer won’t have a party.
