[West Ender]

Now we're celebrating the abolition of the slave trade in Britain there have been demands that we should apologise for having been a part of it. I'm as appalled by what I've learned about slavery as anyone else is and I can say I'm sorry it ever happened but I just don't appreciate the idea of apology.

Who do we apologise to? The people who were enslaved are all dead and we can't apologise to Africa in general as many Africans were as guilty as as Europeans and provided the slaves for the traders.

None of us, who are alive today, had any part in the African slave trade. Some of our ancestors may have but can we be held responsible for what our great great great grandfathers might have done?

Slavery existed long before Britain became involved. No doubt some of our distant ancestors were slaves owned by the Romans. Should Italy apologise to us? It existed after the abolition, in fact it still exists in various forms today. We are all aware of "sex slaves".

There's no doubt Britain prospered when it took part in the trade but it also prospered when little children were working in the cotton mills in similar conditons to those of the slaves who were picking the raw cotton, little more than slaves themselves because their families couldn't survive without their meagre earnings. I had ancestors who were mill workers at the age of 8. I also had ancestors who, in the same period, owned cotton mills. Who should apologise to me? Should I be apologising to myself?