Richard Drax: his ancestors transported slaves to the Caribbean in cramped, unhygienic ships. Now he is opposing a similar (albeit somewhat more comfortable) scheme for asylum-seekers.
When a Conservative MP whose family were pioneers of the slave trade opposes a plan to house foreign asylum-seekers on a “completely inadequate” barge, his colleagues in government ought to take notice.
They won’t, of course.
Richard Drax’s ancestors ran sugar plantations based on slave labour, in Barbados and Jamaica, until the British Parliament banned slavery in 1833. The slaves had been transported from Africa on ships where conditions were appallingly cramped, unhygienic and inhumane.
Now, single men who have already suffered to get to the UK are set to be billeted on the 222-berth barge Bibby Stockholm while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed. It is expected to be in use for 18 months.
It will be moored in Portland Port, near Weymouth, and is said to have been refurbished since the Dutch government used it for the same purpose, when it was described as an “oppressive environment.”
Drax’s constituency includes Portland, so the reason he doesn’t want this seems clear (Not In My Back Yard-ism).
According to the BBC,
he was “very concerned” about the impact on the area which “relies on small businesses”.
That being said, the mere fact of him opposing this should carry some weight.
The plan has been touted as a way to get asylum-seekers out of hotels where their accommodation has been costing the government more than £6 million per day and angering local residents.
But Labour has said it is
“in addition to hotels, not instead of them, and is still more than twice as expensive as normal asylum accommodation”.
So whichever way you slice it, the evidence in support of this new scheme is wafer-thin.
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Richard Drax: he likes to dress the part of the landed gentry, but it seems his fortune is built on something sordid. Time to face reality?
Political news tends to dry up during Parliamentary vacations such as the current Christmas and New Year holiday – and that’s when reporters can turn up some very interesting pieces to fill the gap.
This one concerns Richard Drax, one of the richest MPs in Parliament, whose inherited fortune was apparently built on the slave trade.
His family owned plantations in Barbados that were farmed by slaves; he still has one there now, although working practices have changed with the times. As a result, he now owns a large amount of Dorset.
Barbados has recently become a republic and its people are asking him to make reparation for the slave-profiteering that built his fortune.
Here’s the report:
Will this MP make amends for his family’s sordid past? Or will he deny responsibility?
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Over it goes: the toppling of the Colston statue, back in June.
Here’s yet another reason for This Writer to be proud of the city of my birth.
After making controversial history during the Black Lives Matter protests last year, when citizens of Bristol tore down a statue of the slaver Edward Colston and threw it in the docks, the city council has gone a step further.
It has passed a motion to make “reparations” – not just financial but also cultural – for the slave trade in which the city participated and its enduring impact.
As former Lord Mayor Cleo Lake stated, “The contribution of African civilisation, culture and people versus how we have been treated is one of the world’s great paradoxes.”
Bristol is also calling for the UK’s Tory government to set up an all-party parliamentary inquiry to examine how such reparations might be delivered.
This might be a challenging request as although the motion was passed with 47 votes in support, 12 Tory councillors voted against it.
Believe it or not, they said the motion to make amends for an abhorrent past “risks exacerbating some divisions by presenting a binary view of the world when the reality is much more complicated”.
That sounds like doubletalk to This Writer! That is, disapproving speech that is intended to confuse an issue.
I think these Tories simply don’t want to face the reality of Bristol’s – and the UK’s – slave-trading background, with all the harm it has done, or the racism that still pervades this nation as a result.
In opposing the motion, they also opposed community wealth creation strategies to produce more sustainable and equitable growth whilst alleviating systemic poverty, which acknowledges that a just economy is the only way to achieve racial justice.
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Why do villains like this always get away with the harm they do?
Worse, why do they insult us by standing for Parliament – and why do we self-harm by voting them in?
It’s insanity.
So Richard Drax – allegedly the wealthiest landowner in the House of Commons – is a director of the Morden Estates Company and signed off on the underpayment of 43 workers there.
This has put his firm on a list of 139 businesses … in a government press release headed “Rogue employers named and shamed for failing to pay minimum wage”.
How did Drax’s family get so rich? From recent headlines it seems they profited from slavery:
He has recently been facing calls to pay reparations over the Drax Hall Plantation in Barbados. His ancestors had a slave workforce there for nearly 200 years.
Some people never change, it seems.
Drax himself has said
the “technical infringement” concerned “beaters” – people who drive game birds out of their cover at shooting events. He said they traditionally took part for enjoyment but had been paid a “modest sum”.
Nobody, it seems, has tracked down any of these beaters to ask if the MP’s information is correct. It seems that, because he is an MP, and a landowner, and an employer, he is automatically allotted the last word.
Note also that fellow Tory Richard Jenrick has recently launched a plan for legislation to protect monuments to historical slavers.
If those statues represent the ancestors of colleagues like Drax, the motivation seems clear.
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Over it goes: the toppling of the Colston statue, back in June. By a curious coincidence, nobod involved in pulling it down could be seen in this image.
People who toppled – and then sank – a statue glorifying slavery during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the summer are to be offered a bizarre punishment.
The five, who pulled down the statue of slaver Edward Colston in Bristol, will have to pay a fine that would go to a charity supporting people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in Bristol – which is more than Colston ever did.
They will also have to complete a questionnaire by Bristol City Council’s history commission, explaining their reasons for attacking an exploiter who considered black and minority ethnic people to be property during a week of protests against their mistreatment.
That’s going to be an uncomfortable read for these history commissioners.
This Writer would be unsurprised if every answer contained harsh criticism of them for even asking such a stupid question.
Worse still is the fact that four more people – three men and a woman – may face criminal charges over the incident:
Avon and Somerset police said its investigation had been completed.
It said: “Following a review of the evidence, detectives will now approach the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision against four people – three men, aged 32, 25 and 21, and a 29-year-old woman.”
Meanwhile, the Home Office is reportedly resuming deportation of asylum-seekers after it was prevented from sending a flight to Spain a few weeks ago.
Lawyers for the deportees demonstrated that the government had rushed the flight in order to deny the refugees their right to appeal.
It’s a direct correlation with the attitude of slavers like Colston, who also refused to allow foreign people any rights.
So we have to ask ourselves:
Who should really be explaining their actions – the protesters who tore down a statue of a historic slaver, or Priti Patel, the home secretary who treats people like slaves today?
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After the statue of slaver Edward Colston was toppled by protesters last month, artist Marc Quinn replaced it with a resin sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester in a pre-dawn operation that caught authorities by surprise.
Slave trader statue replaced by ‘unofficial’ sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester pic.twitter.com/QaG3cDVvMS
Now calls have been made for the city to keep the new statue standing on the formerly-vacant plinth.
The artist said he had based the statue on the moment activist Jen Reid stood on top of the empty plinth on June 7, raising her fist to the skies.
Authorities in Bristol are receiving calls for the statue to be kept, even though it was raised without permission. Mayor Marvin Rees has previously said any replacement would be decided democratically through consultation.
This is a big step forward against the attitude that said slavers should be celebrated, and against the right-wing loons who tried to protect statues like this after Colston’s was pulled down and dumped in the River Avon.
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[This is one of three connected articles. This Site is also examining the responses of Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer to Black Lives Matter; none of them come out smelling of roses.]
Racist historian David Starkey has been dropped like a hot coal by his publisher and university after expressing “abhorrent” views in an interview on the far-right YouTube channel Reasoned.
HarperCollins will no longer publish the historian and Canterbury Christ Church University has terminated his role after he said “slavery was not genocide”.
Starkey told right-wing commentator Darren Grimes: “Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there? You know, an awful lot of them survived.”
According to The Guardian:
HarperCollins UK said it would not be publishing any further books by Starkey.
“The views expressed by David Starkey in his recent interview are abhorrent and we unreservedly condemn them,” said the publisher. “Our last book with the author was in 2010, and we will not be publishing further books with him. We are reviewing his existing backlist in light of his comments and views.”
Starkey was signed by HarperCollins in a four-book deal in 2006, publishing titles including Monarchy: Behind the Royal Mask from the Tudors to the Present, and Henry: Virtuous Prince, the first in a planned two-part biography of Henry VIII. It is understood that the other two titles in the deal, which included the second part of Starkey’s biography, will no longer be published by HarperCollins. The book is currently listed online as coming out in September.
A spokesperson for Hodder & Stoughton, which published Starkey’s 2015 book Magna Carta, said it would also not publish him again: “We unequivocally condemn racism in any form. We published a book by David Starkey in 2015 as a one off project to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta to coincide with a TV documentary. We will not be publishing any further books by him.”
We’ll come to Canterbury Christ Church presently.
If you haven’t seen Starkey’s interview, here’s the offending extract:
"Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there?"
David Starkey, one of the most widely known popular 'historians' in the UK who has been a regular fixture on TV and other media for decades. pic.twitter.com/gVeodJakTW
There are several pertinent points there, including this:
If you think saying “slavery was not genocide because there’s so many blacks today” is not racist, imagine David Starkey said “the Holocaust wasn’t a genocide because there’s still Jews around.” It’s a disgrace.
Probably more pertinent still is this, from Kerry-Anne Mendoza: “I’m descended from the indigenous people of the Caribbean: the Kalinago. You’ve likely not heard of us. We were virtually annihilated during the first waves of slavery, which is when the Slavers moved on to importing Black Africans to the Caribbean. So f*** you, David.”
Starkey doesn’t stop there. Take a look at this:
This part of the interview might be even more racist than the slavery comments… pic.twitter.com/NswISmh8Ge
Starkey compares #blacklivesmatter to an entitled lady at Harrods and says they usually have 'lots of money & big cars'.
These morons have been allowed to set the political agenda in this country because they have been elevated by the media. Millionaires that help billionaires.
Lefty columnist Owen Jones tweeted: “This is gratuitous, unashamed racism. It is uttered by one of the most famous historians in the country, a regular on panel shows. It is nodded at by a prominent Tory commentator.”
Here‘s Twitter’s Tom London: “The scandal about this odious, vile man is that he is given airtime and space in newspapers and treated with respect by the Establishment.”
Well, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge – which is about as ‘Establishment’ as one can be, has had enough:
The Master of Fitzwilliam College contacted Dr David Starkey, following his comments. The Master has accepted Dr David Starkey’s resignation of his Honorary Fellowship with immediate effect.
— Fitzwilliam College (@FitzwilliamColl) July 3, 2020
Although Dr Starkey holds no teaching role at Fitzwilliam, Honorary Fellows have the same responsibility as all members of our College to uphold our values.
— Fitzwilliam College (@FitzwilliamColl) July 3, 2020
The decision to ditch Starkey has been greeted with applause:
David Starkey no longer anything to do with Fitzwilliam College……
No doubt the far right will shout injustice for a man they did not know existed….
Canterbury Christ Church University didn’t even offer him the chance to resign, it seems. Here’s that organisation’s tweet, with appropriate comment by Ms Mendoza:
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) July 3, 2020
Even Darren Grimes, the rising star of the right-wing media, has tried to distance himself from the storm he help to whip up – unsuccessfully, in the light of his own comments.
For example, after Grimes tweeted this about the interview…
He stated: “Hand on heart, I wasn’t engaged enough in this interview as I should’ve been. It goes without saying that Reasoned UK does not support or condone Dr David Starkey’s words.
“I am very new to being the interviewer rather than the interviewee and I should have robustly questioned Dr Starkey about his comments.
“However, whether it’s on the BBC, ITV, Sky News or on YouTube, no interviewer is responsible for the views expressed by their guests.
“At Reasoned UK you’ll always find unfiltered opinions, allowing the audience to make up their own minds – that said, in future – I can promise that there will be a host who is much more willing to challenge those opinions.”
Responses mocked Grimes:
I'm sorry that noted celebrity racist David Starkey said something racist when I invited him onto my no-holds-barred right-wing YouTube channel specifically to trash Black Lives Matter. There was no way I could have predicted this
They also pointed out that he played a far greater role in getting the offending words out to the public than just being the interviewer.
As Lewis Parker tweeted: “You didn’t just interview a racist. You interviewed him, nodded your head in agreement, edited the video, posted the video, and then promoted it. Also, the video is still up on your YouTube channel. What a sad sad excuse.”
There’s this, too:
Just a reminder. Grimes saw Starkey as one of his heroes, and thought the interview was ‘bloody fantastic’. Don’t pretend he does agree with Starkey. pic.twitter.com/aFXKnw0YCm
Still, public opinion seems to believe Starkey still has one port of refuge in this storm – the BBC:
Jackie Walker, the anti-racism campaigner who has often spoken about the genocide of black people caused by the US/Caribbean slave trade tweeted: “Just let what he’s saying sink in, then ask how come the BBC/media allow this man to comment on history.”
This Site’s friend Cornish Damo added: “He’s one of the most hate-filled, bile-inducing blowhards the BBC continue to employ. Now he can add massive racist to this extremely selective ‘historian’. What say you Beeb & anyone else who uses him? Will you stop wheeling this white supremacist out to lecture us now?”
The BBC has been aware that Starkey’s views are poison for many years – former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted his shock at Newsnight broadcasting his racist views, way back in 2011:
Was there any soul-searching on @BBCNewsnight when Mr Corbyn tweeted this in 2011? Doubt it
BBC needs MORE soul-searching, MORE engagement with views outside its own bubble, MORE humility and LESS arrogant our-best-critic-is-ourselves, we’ll just go on marking our own home work https://t.co/uTGU3tpgKK
Here’s the reason he got away with it, courtesy of another David – Schneider: “Never mind the ignorance about genocide, that “damn blacks” isn’t just a shocking indictment of Starkey. It shows a confidence that you can say that because every time you have done in the past the people you’re with nod along in agreement.”
Craig Murray agrees:
David Starkey has been known to the BBC as a racist for at least nine years. https://t.co/0Xf551flm7 But you cannot be too right wing for the BBC and it has never stopped them inviting him on to spread his poison. https://t.co/4djhO6GGuO
So what will the Corporation do? Will it follow this advice…
BBC must now make a statement that they condemn Starkey's 'so many damn blacks' comment and confirm that they will cancel any further appearances by him and delete any Starkey material on iPlayer.
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Over it goes: could there be any more clear ‘down with racism’ demand than the toppling of the statue to slaver Edward Colston in Bristol?
Having been born in Bristol, This Writer is aware of the unsavoury slaver history of Edward Colston, and the reverence in which he has been held has confused me for years.
But, being part of a Bristol family, it was hard to criticise him directly. Many of us have historical links with slavery and until earlier this week, I had believed that my family had such links.
Apparently I was mistaken. A BBC documentary about former Mayor John Kerle Haberfield (a great-(many times)-uncle revealed that he had not been involved with the slave trade and nor were any other of my family on that side. It’s possible that other ancestors were, although I have no evidence to suspect it.
I attended St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School, where around a fifth of the pupils were members of Colston House, named after the slaver. The school changed the house name last year (2019) in favour of African-American female mathematician Katherine Johnson. I was a member of Francombe House, which was less controversially named after a former head teacher of the school.
Campaigners have been working to end the veneration of the slave trader Colston, who ran the Royal Africa Company that enslaved around 12,000 children, for many decades. My understanding is that calls to tear down the statue of Colston were taking place 40 years ago, at least.
So, WHO blocked the removal of the statue which has been demanded by reasonable people for years?
Edward Colston (1636–1721) was a Bristol-based slave trader whose ships transported 84,000 men, women and children from West Africa to the Americas. 19,000 died during the crossings. Yet in Bristol his memory has been honoured for centuries. https://t.co/jobMUnFjN5
Worth noting that we have only just finished paying off the debt we incurred to compensate the slave-owners. Not the slaves, obviously, but their abusers.https://t.co/6cePKAuAi9
Public feeling against racism boiled over during a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration prompted by the death of George Floyd in the United States, and after years of campaigning to get rid of the Grade II listed (why was it Grade II listed?) statue, people decided to tear it down themselves and throw it into the River Avon – in a manner reminiscent of the way Colston himself would throw unruly slaves – weighed down with chains – into the sea during slaving voyages.
Colston was a slaver. He put down slave revolts by throwing rebels overboard with their arms & feet shackled. So Bristolians took his statue to Pero’s bridge (named after Pero Jones, one of those enslaved) threw him in the water & watched him sink. Poetry.pic.twitter.com/1wIC3AXV3s
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
This just made me cry proper tears of relief and joy and validation.
That fucking statue. Every time we asked for it to go, the white supremacists for their way. And now, taken matters into our own hands.
The tearing down of the Colston statue – a Bristol slave trader – during the #BLM protests today raises many questions. Like, did you see the bit where they threw it in the river? pic.twitter.com/Pksepo1K1Z
Police have said they are treating the incident as an act of criminal damage, which they are investigating. This has given some people another opportunity for satire:
BREAKING: Police release footage of a man they want to speak to in relation to a criminal damage offence in Bristol.
He is considered extremely dangerous and members of the public are warned not to approach him. pic.twitter.com/sDVqXEApLL
How will the people of Bristol replace the statue? It seems some have ideas already:
The first British organisation to call for immediate emancipation of all slaves was an all female group from Sheffield: Sheffield Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Would quite like to see a statue to them
Perhaps most revealing has been the reaction of different public figures to what is a clear act of vandalism, even if the reasoning behind it is supportable.
This senior police officer in Bristol (rightly) concluded it was wiser to let a statue fall, which nobody actually wanted, to a public order situation with hundreds of arrests.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
Seriously, the Home Secretary Priti Patel has shown more upset and outrage of the toppling of a statue than she has for the tens of thousands that are dead because of her government’s pathetic and ineffective response to the coronavirus crisis.
The transatlantic slave trade resulted in the deaths of approximately 1.2–2.4 million Africans during their transport to the New World. Perhaps Priti Patel should direct her anger towards having a statue of the man who was largely responsible for this in the first place.
Hence Priti Patel's panic, she and the government have exactly the same thoughts. This could be the beginning of the end my friend. https://t.co/swG0LEecqk
— neil flek waugh .#Palestine is a state. BDS (@sammythedog1989) June 7, 2020
As should Sajid Javid’s:
You know full well we’ve tried to have that statue removed peacefully, and been blocked, for FORTY YEARS.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
Some people on here seem more enraged that a slave-trader’s statue was pulled down (why was it still up?) than they were by George Floyd being slowly murdered on camera by a racist cop. This strikes me as a ‘problematic’ mindset…
And, indeed, some members of the Labour Party have questions to answer:
Some centrist Labour MPs have offered more support to a statue of slave trader Edward Colston than they ever have to Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler and other black Labour MPs. Just saying.
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush (@WarmongerHodges) June 7, 2020
Those who pulled down the slaver’s statue today helped draw attention to the seldom spoken truth that the establishment built British capitalism on a bedrock of slavery.
If we don't acknowledge that past, we're not going to be able to tackle ongoing racism in the British state.
Good. If statues of confederates who fought a war for slavery & white supremacy shld come down then why not this one? Someone responsible for immeasurable blood & suffering. We’ll never solve structural racism till we get to grips with our history in all its complexity. #BLMpic.twitter.com/Bk8cYHk0rM
You know what’s just as satisfying as Edward Colston being tossed into the harbour? The million racist tears about “erasing *our* history” from people who couldn’t tell you his first name or the basic details of his life before today.
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🏴 (@TheMendozaWoman) June 7, 2020
If you're saying the statues should remain in place to help educate, at school I managed to learn long division without there being a fucking statue of it in the middle of a city
Let’s be honest, one viral video showing a statue of a slave trader being torn down has done more to educate people about Britain’s past atrocities than the statue did in the 125 years previous.
It was erected, in 1895, at a time when the Empire was wobbling and many attempts were made to “re-inject” a spirit of imperial patriotism. Uncomfortable truths about slavery did not play a part in that; instead, Colston and others were meant to represent a benign imperialism.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 7, 2020
So while we might debate the toppling of a statue by protestors, don’t let anyone tell you that it equals erasing history. In this case, if anything, the statue is better viewed as ahistorical than anything remotely representing actual history.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 7, 2020
Chucking that statue in the harbour has educated more Brits on the history of the slave trade in this country than leaving it up for 150 odd years did. Can’t argue with the end of season stats bro.
And in Russia and Iraq, statues of Communist leaders and Saddam Hussein (respectively) were torn down after those regimes were toppled.
Even yesterday, the toppling-in-effigy of Colston wasn’t unique:
A crowd has climbed onto the statue of colonial King Léopold II in #Brussels chanting “murderer” and waving the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo where his atrocities took place. #DRC 🇨🇩 #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/DIH9MGu39M
We are left with the overwhelming impression that the removal of the Colston statue was right, no matter how it was achieved.
But we live in a country where somebody may go to prison for making it happen. If you don’t think that’s right, you need to be thinking about what you are going to do about it.
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James Cleverly: Not the sharpest tool in the Tory box.
Is there anyone in the Conservative cabinet who hasn’t made themselves look foolish recently?
James Cleverly has – many times, as long-term readers of This Site will know.
But it is from Skwawkbox that we derive this example of imbecilic stupidity:
The Tories and Slave Owners did their best to break him, as a politician and a man…a bit like they're trying with Corbyn…they hate anything that challenges their wealth and power….nothing else @JamesCleverly
James Cleverly put out a tweet claiming that William Wilberforce, the MP responsible for the 1833 ‘Slavery Abolition Act’ was ‘a Tory MP from Yorkshire’ and an example of a Conservative having a positive impact on society:
In fact, Wilberforce was an independent MP who died just three days after hearing that the Act had been passed – and the Conservative party was only formed a year later. The ‘Tories’, the precursor to the Conservative party, did exist – but Wilberforce was not a member and Tories largely opposed the bill.
As you can see, the general public took umbrage, and responded in characteristic fashion.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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