Minister told London conference that Glorious Revolution of 1688 paved way for economic certainty
It would be wrong to attribute the UK’s wealth and economic success to its colonial history or racial privilege, the business and trade minister, Kemi Badenoch, has told an audience in the City.
Addressing financial services bosses at TheCityUK’s international conference in London, the business secretary said the UK’s past exploitation and oppression of other countries and groups of people could not sufficiently explain the country’s economic trajectory.
Badenoch said: “It worries me when I hear people talk about wealth and success in the UK as being down to colonialism or imperialism or white privilege or whatever.”
Instead, she said the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – which led to the development of the UK constitution and solidified the role of parliament – should be credited for providing the kind of economic certainty that paved the way for the Industrial Revolution.
Any other interpretation could derail efforts to increase growth at home and abroad, Badenoch said.
“It matters, because if people genuinely believe that the UK only grew and developed into an advanced economy because of exploitation and oppression, then the solutions they will devise will make our growth and productivity problem even worse,” she said.
“It matters in other countries too, because if developing nations do not understand how the west became rich, they cannot follow in its footsteps.
“And it matters when, as your trade secretary, I go to the World Trade Organization conference negotiating on the UK’s behalf, and some of my counterparts spend the entire time in meetings talking about colonialism, blame the west for their economic difficulties, and make demands that would make all of us – not just in this country, but around the world – poorer.”
Her comments come nearly a year after the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, refused to apologise for the UK’s role in the slave trade or to commit to paying reparations.
That was despite descendants of some of Britain’s wealthiest enslavers calling on the government to apologise for slavery and begin a programme of reparative justice in light of the “ongoing consequences of this crime against humanity”.
“Its after-effects still harm people’s lives in Britain, as well as in the Caribbean countries where our ancestors made money,” a member of the Heirs of Slavery campaign group said.
A report published by the University of the West Indies last June concluded that the UK alone owed $24tn (£18.8tn) in reparations for transatlantic slavery in 14 countries, including $9.6tn to Jamaica. The report used calculations made by the Brattle Group, which factored in the wealth and GDP amassed by countries that enslaved African people.
The implication of this is that Britain did all that colonising and genocide for the fun of it, which is honestly way worse.
This, or completely denying that it ever happened, implying that the former colonised countries who point out the past and lasting legacy of imperialism are just a bunch of whiny liars out to make the UK look bad, and that they should just get over it… 🤦♀️
Kemi Badenoch continues to lick boot like it’s going out of fashion, with some added mental gymnastics for extra style points on this one… 🤦♀️
She’s correct in the sense that imperialism isn’t the only reason that the UK has had economic success. At the same time she’s wrong if she’s suggesting that it wasn’t a factor at all (not sure if she is suggesting that).
In the modern era, the UK benefitted a lot from having a stable government, educated workforce and independent judicary. These factors make our country a “safe” place to expand into or invest in for overseas firms. I think that ‘reliability’ factor is probably the key to our success in the past 100 years or so when trade became increasingly globalised.
The idea that the stability and reliability you mention just manifested out of thin air, and not out of the resources (humans included) pillaged from around the globe (and those countries subsequently being left underdeveloped, poor, and often internally divided so deeply that the regional wars the empire started and left in its wake continue to this day) in the centuries that directly preceded it, or somehow imply that that isn’t the main and most prominent factor that significantly outweighs any other, is beyond absurd, it’s flat out wrong.
She wants to be accepted so bad.
I almost feel sad for her. But only almost…
Ah so it was the solidified constitution that made us the largest empire (by any measure) to have ever existed.
All those countries just invited us in to rule them because of that did they?
Duh, everyone knows constitutions autonomously generate wealth… 🙄🙄
Give up the shit in your museums
huh there must be some other reason why south africa drives on the left then
descendants of some of Britain’s wealthiest enslavers calling on the government to apologise for slavery and begin a programme of reparative justice
Why would they need to ask the government for that? Surely they inherited all the wealth of those slavers.
They did, and are now wanting the government to set up reparations from that money for the decedents of the enslaved, and apologise for slavery. The point being that even some of those who most directly still benefit from slavery are more able to acknowledge the realities than Badenoch is.
Why they can’t at the very least set up reparations on their own is another question, probably because they don’t really want to do it and hope that shifting responsibility to the government means that just saying they want it will be enough, but that isn’t based on anything other than my knowledge of rich people (they didn’t get rich by sharing their money)
Yep, and every item in the British Museum was a gift!
