Communication adviser, consultant and spokesman; Ex safari guide; Conservationist; Interest in military affairs. Views are my own. 🇬🇧🇺🇸
London
Joined September 2009
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Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Of an estimated 35 million Africans trafficked into slavery across the Atlantic, Sahara and Indian Ocean, the British share was about 9 per cent.
Britain was also the first major power to abolish both slave-trading and slavery permanently. It then led the world in suppressing them, spending an estimated £90 billion in today’s money combating the transatlantic trade alone between 1806 and 1867.
Yet King Charles will arrive in Antigua this week facing demands that Britain pay reparations for its historic involvement in slavery.
To single out the British, of all peoples, is outrageously unfair. The King should acknowledge the evils of the past while urging the Commonwealth to confront slavery in the present.
Read my thoughts at The Biggar Picture: nigelbiggar.co.uk/p/king-cha…
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
King Charles should gently but firmly rebuff the demands for slavery reparations awaiting him at the Commonwealth heads’ meeting in Antigua.
Slavery was gravely unjust. But the case for Britain to pay reparations is historically distorted, morally unfair and politically opportunistic. It ignores the universality of slavery, exaggerates Britain’s profits from it, and overlooks our extraordinary role in its abolition.
Rather than yield to misplaced white guilt, the King should lament slavery, remind Commonwealth leaders of Britain’s record in suppressing it, and invite them to join us in fighting its modern forms.
Read my thoughts at The Biggar Picture: nigelbiggar.co.uk/p/king-cha…
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
If, as The Telegraph reports, Burnham is going to make reparation in the shape of millions towards health and education in the Caribbean to “atone” for the slave trade, I guarantee that he will lose a General election whether he calls it sooner or later. A shocking decision.
The guy’s a dud.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Reminder: the UK is 3 trillion in debt; 100bn annually to service that debt; 20k Royal Navy sailors died enforcing the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade; & British tax payers only finished paying the loans under the
Slavery Abolition Act 1833 in *2015*.
Of course this government are considering saddling the UK under more debt.
🚨 NEW: Andy Burnham is “open” to payouts in health and education for Commonwealth countries to make up for Britain’s role in the slave trade
[@Telegraph]
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Superb video reminding us of the ultimate price paid by so many Royal Navy submariners over the last 125years.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
I am struck that we’re having a conversation about the demise of the Commonwealth, something that would have been inconceivable in sensible quarters only 10-years ago. Parts of it have become a grifter’s paradise, endlessly seeking money from the bank of Mum and Dad because of the failure of their own economies. I for one would be happy to give it the heave-ho. That emotion surprises me the most
'It is a lot to ask people to risk everything. Soldiers have to believe the country has their back.'
Does it?
Excellent piece.
thetimes.com/uk/defence/arti…
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Heavily armed terrorists stopped before they could murder.
Judging soldier, making split second decisions in 1991, through the lens of 2026.
It is clear, using the RoE, they were justified in opening fire.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
As we debate reparations for historical slavery, an estimated 50 million people are living in modern slavery. We should acknowledge the past, but freeing people enslaved today ought to be the greater priority than pointing fingers of blame for what happened 200 years ago. Where is the same political urgency for them?
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
I agree with every word of this.
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.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
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.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
It is wholly inappropriate for any Defence Secretary to talk about the Chairman of the Defence Select Committee in this way – totally disrespectful.
Just because @TanDhesi had the temerity to question where the money is going to come from to get to 3% - given John Healey still has no plan, despite resigning over that very matter – it’s no excuse for @wesstreeting to vent his frustration in this way.
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
"Disappointing"
The verdict on Healey's first budget from the UK defence trade body.
@ADSgroupUK CEO Kevin Craven: "Industry is still waiting for the full and detailed plan it needs to invest with confidence.
"The stakes could not be higher."
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
There comes a point when compulsive lying by politicians becomes a threat to national security and reputation.
We seem to have reached that point.
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Funnily enough this afternoon on BBC radio news presenter stumbled… “Today, the Chancellor of the Exchequer deslivered his first budget”, Freudian slip? Anyone else think of a reptile?
As expected, the @UKLabour Government is relying on creative accounting, ‘clever’ spin and ‘jam tomorrow’ to sell its so-called Defence Investment Plan (a tiny, and reduced sub-set of the budget) to a mainly disinterested, welfare-dependent, debt-loaded, post-industrial country.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Paraphrasing @wesstreeting: “Those charged with the defence of the UK (regardless of threats faced) will have to live within their (treasury set) means…it’s the best we can do, and it’s all that the focus-groups want us to do…”
It’s the “see no evil” approach to defence planning
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Er, defence spending has too often been cut since the Cold War so this is a hollow metric for gauging the rebuilding of military strength
The question is: are we rearming at the speed of relevance? Given @wesstreeting says we need to be ready for war by 2030, it would appear not
Patrick Gildart Jackson retweeted
Insane or criminally anti-British.
Get rid of him.
