A heated debate over reparations for slavery erupted during BBC’s Question Time, as an audience member dismissed demands for compensation as “ridiculous.”
The debate aired live from Plymouth this week and part of it focused on whether the UK should allocate funds to atone for its colonial past.
Emily Sheffield, a journalist on the panel, said: “I think it’s an incredibly complex question.”
She added:“King Charles has said that we must understand the path of history. I do think there is further acknowledgement to be made of the pain, the stain of that terrible period of history that caused so much damage to so many communities.”
Sheffield stressed that the conversation should continue and that reparations should not only focus on money, saying: “Reparations is not just about money, it is about acknowledging what happened.”
An audience member was then asked to speak and he wasn’t happy with what he heard from the panel.
He said: “You’re opening a can of worms. You’re asking the country to be responsible for something that happened 200 years ago, and for me to pay that to someone who wasn’t even there. I find it all ridiculous.”
The man argued that it was unfair to hold people accountable for events that happened centuries ago. He said: “Why should I pay for something that happened before I was alive to someone who wasn’t alive then?”
Sheffield responded, asking if the audience member acknowledged the importance of discussing the issue.
She asked if he acknowledges that it’s good people talk about it now. The man replied, saying: “I acknowledge it could help build their businesses, but it sounds like a fine to me.
“That’s what it sounds like, and I don’t think you should hold today’s people in contempt for that.”
Sheffield also referenced Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, who said the discussion was not just about money, but “about appreciation of what our ancestors went through.”