Bode retweeted
Kemi, congratulations on leading a major British party as a Black Woman. It takes real talent to rise to where you are and deceit is what it takes to rise as a Black leader in a western Conservative Party.
It is a pity the climb did not leave room for a history book and since you chose to argue in the language of history, let us do the history. Let’s dissect your verbal diarrhea point by point.
Everyone participated." Slavery existed on every continent. So did war, and nobody calls a village feud the World War. The transatlantic trade ran for 366 years (1501 to 1866) and put about 12.5 million Africans on ships, of whom about 1.8 million died before they saw the Americas, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. It ran through joint-stock companies, chartered monopolies, Lloyd's underwriters and acts of Parliament. It was hereditary, because the law made the child of an enslaved mother property from birth. It was racial, because a whole continent was defined as chattel. No other system in history combined those features at that scale. Dissolving all of it into "people from every continent" is far worse than intellectual dishonesty.
Britain was a market leader, not a participant. British ships carried about 3.2 million Africans, second only to Portugal and Brazil. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) gave Britain the asiento, a thirty-year monopoly to supply 4,800 enslaved Africans a year to Spanish America. The Royal African Company, chartered in 1672 and headed by the Duke of York, later James II, branded its captives "DY". During Edward Colston's years in its leadership it shipped about 84,000 people, and roughly 19,000 died on the way.
You say British taxpayers should not answer for what happened before they were born. They did. In 1833 Britain borrowed £20 million to compensate slaveholders, and taxpayers serviced that loan until 2015, including the descendants of the enslaved. So the principle you invoke was not applied when the cheque went to slaveholders. It only appears when the cheque changes direction.
"Navel-gazing" is a curious charge from someone whose party spends more energy on the past (Empire nostalgia, culture war crusades) than most of those you accuse. Defend Britain if you must. But do not use your Nigerian name as the permission slip for arguments Nigerians know better than anyone.
Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.
If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?
On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.
There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again.
This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.
How has Sanwo-Olu empowered agberos to this extent in Lagos? Why are they able to block public roads and restrict people’s movement as though they have the authority of the state?
I hate people who commit fraud but I have even less respect for the family and friends who know exactly how they make their money and still proudly celebrate their wealth.
Bode retweeted
Saskatchewan RCMP is asking the public to report sightings of Mayowa Adekunle Babalola. He is known to frequent the Winnipeg area, but his current whereabouts are unknown. Read more.
rcmp.ca/en/saskatchewan/news…
Bode retweeted
If you are a newcomer to Canada (less than 5 years), anyone asking you to subscribe to a Universal Life Insurance hates you and wants to rip you off!!!
Once they start introducing the investment word to insurance then they are out to scam you!
Run from them.
Bode retweeted
.@DanielleSmith was never in any form of contact with me.
However, what prompted me to file my petition still under the old rules, was a call (leak) from a UCP minister, divulging that Smith was plotting a relaxation of rules for separatists. I had to beat them to the punch.
WOW!
Jeff Rath posted text messages that he alleges are from Danielle Smith!
These texts seem to show her coordinating with the separatists to launch their original question, though Rath claims he took them as her coordinating with @LukaszukAB !
What do you think?
I want Fubara to shock Wike. At this point, he has very little left to lose. If the EFCC is what they’ll use against him, then let it be against him and whoever he may have helped cover up for.
Let’s see how far the political game goes.
My father is a perfume collector by association because tell me why this man is layering Pascal Morabito with Dior Sauvage just to go out with me and my brother
Perspective is really an incredible thing. We can all agree that David Eby was opportunistic, took advantage of the opposition's woes and failed. He also did the right thing in not holding on to a weak mandate for another two years at the expense of British Columbians.
