Not Even Our Excuses Are Sorry

Parameters for the debate over reparations for the transatlantic work ethic are being settled by two of our slavery-abolishing nation's various parties for migrant-bashing and World War Three. As might be expected, the moderate centre favours empty words, while the hard right fears that even these should be withheld lest they prove not empty enough. The latest nominal leader of the Conservative rabble whatabouterised that everybody did slavery, so it would be unfair for the greatest country in the world to take any responsibility for its own part; while the Chancellor moralised that British people (whether the master race as a whole, or only those select hard-working families whose heirlooms and estates might be at risk) should not have to accept financial liability for events in which they did not participate. This seems rather a courageous argument to advance a week before the annual remembrance rah-rah, in which British politicians solemnly stand forth and ooze patriotic pride over events in which they did not participate. It is also to be hoped that someone will break it gently to the Chancellor just who has spent the last couple of decades paying for the 2008 financial crash, and just who will reap the wildfires from the current governmental predilection for fossil fuels and infoslop.