Nobody stood up for an apology. No won comfortably, and the Yes side left not a single argument, so the case for saying sorry went unmade while its opponents filled the space.
The most-respected No case did not defend the UK's record so much as widen the dock: “Will Islam pay reparations to my family for the Barbary slave trade?” it asked, adding the Ottoman trade and Africans who sold Africans. Others pursued the same line, one demanding to know which country “hasn't engaged in or tolerated slavery at some point”.
The second strand was abolition as its own answer. A well-respected voice cited the 1833 Act and a debt paid off only in 2015; another said the rest of the world owes the UK “a debt of gratitude for our key role in ending it”. Tone ran from tart to openly scornful, with some voters demanding thanks rather than contrition.
A quieter group argued from principle. “No one alive had anything to do with the slave trade,” wrote one, and others said an apology would be performative and invite reparations claims. One voter was “not against an apology per se” but would fight any payment, the nearest thing to a concession. Two pointed to earlier apologies from William Pitt and Prince Albert.
With reparations a live issue, voters kept merging apology and payment, and nobody on the Yes side was there to separate them.
219 Opinions
Will Islam pay reparations to my family for the Barbary slave trade? Or the Ottoman slave trade which lasted centuries longer than trans-Atlantic? Or Africans to themselves for being the ones to sell each other into slavery?
1833 Slavery Abolition Act, Passed by Parliament, this act freed more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, South Africa, and Canada. In 1838 Full Emancipation came after a multi-year "apprenticeship" system for formerly enslaved adults ended in 1838. The UK finished paying off this debt in 2015. No, we owe no one an apology.
Apologise for ending slavery? Are you mad????? That was surely a good thing. It’s the Muslims that need to apologise if any apology is required. The slave descendants should get down on their knees and thank Britain. I’ll wait. They do seem slow.
It's a ridiculous, ahistorical idea. Name me the country which hasn't engaged in or tolerated slavery at some point in the past. All races have been enslaved at some time or another - elements of the native population of Britain have been enslaved by the Romans, the Vikings, the Barbary states, and no doubt others besides - do we need to get an apology from Italy, Denmark, Norway, Morocco, Tunisia and the like?
No one alive had anything to do with the slave trade so it would be an empty apology. Anyway we ended it
Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade is in ending it. No apology required, we should be recognised and thanked. People would do better to focus on the areas of the world where slavery still exists today, along with forced labour and forced marriage.
On the contrary, the rest of the world owes us a debt of gratitude for our key role in ending it.
Slavery has been employed by peoples across the world since time immemorial. The Brits ended the transatlantic slave trade. You're welcome.
The only reason the world sees slavery as wrong is because Britain demanded an end to it, it's people petitioned & refused to buy sugar to force parliament to act, paid a ransom that protected the lives of people enslaved and then fought and died to bring it to an end. That's more than than enough of an apology.
How about they formally thank the UK for ending it, and condemn the thousands of years of slavery worldwide. As well as stop the calls for reparations. Slavery was abhorrent, but you'd think Britain was the sole perpetrator.