Calvin Robinson | This House Would Pay Reparations

foreign [Music] Calvin Robinson Calvin is an Anglican Deacon TV radio presenter and conservative commentator he regularly features on GMB BBC Radio GB news and in print for the telegraph Daily Mail spectator and spiked Calvin you have the ears of the house [Applause] thank you very much now I'd like to start with a question in return to reparations who pays whom bearing in mind that no one alive today was a direct victim of the transatlantic slave trade and no one alive today is at fault for the transatlantic slave trade and my opposition talks about nobody wanting to apologize the government and the monarchy have apologized at expressing regret for the situation but they were not directly at fault therefore they shouldn't directly take responsibility in an open apology wealth is never acquired justly not in a capitalist system and unless you're proposing communism where everyone is equally poor I don't think wealth ever will be acquired justly we heard a moment ago about the former colonies and we heard the word Empire and the word nationalism used in a derogatory fashion as if they're bad things now without without nationalism we don't have a national Society we don't have a border we don't have a country there are those that would propose though the proposed we should live in a globalist society where we don't have borders and countries I think that would be a bad thing give way termination the very thing Britain spent 250 years [Applause] very good very good I would argue that I'm not and I would argue why because on the on the point of colonies if we look at the data rather than speaking to anecdotes as my opposition did if we look at the latest data we have from the former colonies such as where my family are from Jamaica the vast majority in the latest polls suggest that they would have preferred to remained part of the British Empire now it's quite easy for people in in a metropolitan City like Cambridge to stand up and say well of course these people in the colonies wanted to be separate from us et cetera et cetera speaking on behalf of people but when you actually asked the people on the ground what did they prefer being a part of the British Empire or being being separate from it the vast majority said part of it and why is that why is that I'll give way in a second why is that that's because the empire was not entirely bad nor was entirely good the Brit the British Empire brought hospitals schools charities Railway lots of other infrastructure Christianity the English language to the rest of the world right to be under the British okay that just proves my point we should listen to anecdotes we should look at the data if you can give me a data that shows that I would listen to you give me some evidence that suggests that I've looked at the evidence from the former colonies that is in favor of remaining part of Britain because Britain brought a lot of good to the world let me let me get a bit further on then I'll give some more points of information so back to the question of which I started with who pays whom are we suggesting that the government pays money to Black Brits in an apology for the transatlantic slavery that seems to be the premise therefore that would suggest that well first of all there's no such thing as government money as we know it's taxpayers money which would mean that people in this room would be paying money to people like myself that would mean that people that are hard-working but not necessarily getting paid much would be paying very rich and successful black people in this country poor black people paying rich black people that is not reparations that's an injustice who would pay whom doesn't make any sense there is no pot of money to give to a certain demographic and where do you draw the line and why is it why is it that we're always talking about the transatlantic slave trade when when if we look at the demographics of this country three percent of us are from a black background seven percent so more than double that are from an Asian background why are we not talking about reparations for India Pakistan why is it specifically the transatlantic slave trade and I'll tell you why and I'll tell you why I'll tell you why because it's popular because it's fashionable because post Joy because post because post George Floyd and the black lives matter movement is only fashionable to talk about reparations in terms of black people when there are lots of other minorities around the world that should be part of the conversation we see it in every aspect of this debate I I used to be a school teacher and a lot of the time people say we need more black history on the curriculum never not never more Arabic history never more Asian history never more Egyptian history always more black history why is that why that particular demographic why should we not be raising everyone up to the same platform that's the question I propose it's become somewhat of an obsession now you only have to look at my my sector the church this year the Church of England has proposed setting aside two billion pounds to pay in reparations for the church's links to colonialism and slavery forgetting of course that parliamentarian William Wilberforce his entire his entire involvements in pushing strongly pushing the abolition movement was motivated by his desire to put Christian principles into action and to serve God in public life and that the Christian abolitionists were the force that initiated and organized the abolition movement Wilberforce wrote in his diary God Almighty has set before me two great objects the suppression of the slave trade and Reformation of morals he he succeeded in first I would argue that perhaps not in this in the latter go ahead who does money belong to my point is that money doesn't belong to people is that it does belong to people it belongs to private individuals and the government money doesn't exist that's tax paying money that's our money so if we're going to give that money away to someone we should all have the same where it goes but in terms of having more Egyptian history on the curriculum I would argue that the curriculum isn't about skin color or ethnicity or race the curriculum especially in terms of history is about how this nation came to be where it is today so if if there are significant dates and events that are affected that align with Egyptian history of course that should be taught and it is taught Egypt is massively on the curriculum but we don't teach in terms of black history and white history We Touch we teach English History European history and world history because that is the history that shapes this nation to what it is today you said that the church should not be complicit because one man many people who fought Nazis inspired by their Christianity but I don't think that that would make for instance the Catholic church and parts of its system which was complicit in allowing the Holocaust or parts of it off the hook just because a couple of its members made me fall against it okay okay so I'll get back to that I'll get to the institution of the church because I'm not saying that I'm not saying that at all if the church is going to look at referations what I'm saying is it needs to look at history holistically and further afield than just the transatlantic slave trade that's the point I'm making so if we look at the Roman Catholic Church look at Pope Gregory Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to this land to proselytize to bring Christianity to the pagans right we always understand that happened but we also know the story of how that happened so so Pope Gregory came across two English slaves um in the Middle East and he knew they were different because they were fair-skinned they didn't look like the other slaves that he'd seen around and he asked them where they were from and they said the angles meaning England and he could tell by their Anglo-Saxon genes that they were different to see other people but we know by that story alone that that's one of the reasons he sent Augustine to come to England to proselytize to evangelize therefore we know as a matter of fact that there has been a history of slavery all around the world and one part of that one one footnote of that is English slaves in the Middle East now therefore if we're looking at if we're looking at history holistically should the English therefore seek reparations from Rome after all five to ten million slaves propped up the Roman Empire five to ten million slaves and these were not these were not black slaves I'll get some I'll get let me get let me get into my speech a bit more and I can't take some more points of information so otherwise I could be one quarter of the population of Athens in ancient Greece were slaves so should we claim reformations from the Greeks too the Turks as well the Ottoman Empire was Rife with slavery my point on this is not that slavery is acceptable but it's common my point is that the cultural evil of slavery has always existed it's existed throughout pretty much every National Group the difference being that we are the one nation in thousands of years that worked flawlessly hard to put an end to it we said enough is enough I mean you can laugh but that's a historic fact right good sir okay so I think there's a crucial difference to be drawn here do you think that we are still suffering from the consequences of slavery [Applause] who's we who is we who is we the global South the people the people of who are descendants of the Windrush generation they are still very much suffering from the from the impact of Empire do you think that is really an appropriate analogy to compare them to to people who were slaves under the Roman Empire thousands of you in what way are you suffering in what way are you suffering you can you can gospel cross your face you're starting one of the best universities in the world in what way are you suffering you are privileged we if we don't recognize our privilege then we kind of help people who are not privileged there are people around the world Suffering From Slavery today slavery is still happening but that people want to live in the past okay I'm gonna I'm gonna go further on because you are very mature you're going to succeed in life now the evil of slavery has always existed particularly amongst the elites and it was the Grassroots it was the normal folk in this country that said enough is enough we caused an uprising we protested and we said we don't want it to just stop at home we want it to stop all around the world that's quite significant the British people putting their effort in to end slavery everywhere we spent half a century with gun boats sailing around the world eradicating slavery we broke International laws we broke the laws of the sea to abolish slavery we were bold we were Brave and we were a righteous Nation we composed 85 pieces of legislation in our Parliament to prevent slavery in the 19th century nope we spent 20 million pounds to fund the slavery abolition act and you could you could say that that money was poorly spent but if that's money spent on ending slavery I say that's very well spent that's the equivalent of 40 of the government's total expenditure we will not do anything like that today so of course I will wrap up of course slavery isn't evil one of the worst hot most horrible acts of all Nations pasts but what I'm saying is that it's an awful practice that has taken a hold of every part of the world at some point in history the difference being we put an end to it we're made arguably the biggest impact on clamping down on slavery there ever has been and that is something to be proud of it cost us dearly not just in monetary terms but in human lives so no to reparations because it was a worthy cause fighting the good fight to end slavery but we have paid that price already thank you very much [Applause] thank you

Channel: Cambridge Union

Views: 89,871

Keywords: Cambridge Union, Cambridge University, Speech, Debate, Cambridge

Id: A8MlDOPaEYw

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 01 2023