The British government, not British people, should apologise for slavery and pursue reparative justice
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/olivette-otele. "British people don’t need to apologise for slavery – but the government does | Olivette Otele | The Guardian." November 3, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author says ordinary Brits shouldn't feel personally guilty for slavery, but the government should apologise because it used public money to compensate slave owners and because today's institutions benefited from slavery. She argues that an apology and a repair plan, using existing resources and willing institutions, would improve relations with Commonwealth countries and address racism that persists today.
Conclusion
The British government (rather than ordinary British people) should apologise for Britain's role in transatlantic slavery and work with institutions and descendants of beneficiaries toward a reparatory/restorative justice plan.
Premises
- British taxpayers, including Black Britons, funded the compensation paid to slave owners after the 1833 Abolition Act, with the debt only fully repaid in 2015, so the state itself used public money to reward those who profited from slavery.
- Slavery helped shape British wealth and institutions (parliament, the Church of England, universities, banking), and its racial hierarchy fed scientific racism whose legacy persists as structural racism in housing, health, education and criminal justice.
- Individuals today are not responsible for their ancestors' wrongdoing, but they inherited institutions that were advantaged by slavery, so responsibility lies with institutions and the government rather than individuals.
- Britain's Commonwealth relationships are vital to its soft power and trade, so refusing to apologise and engage with reparatory justice is a diplomatic and political mistake.
- Repair need not mean mass taxpayer-funded financial payments: it can draw on existing resources, such as museum restitution, debt restructuring, climate and education funding, and partnerships with institutions and heirs of slave owners that are willing to engage.
- If the debt to slavers could be sustained without question until 2015, repair for the ongoing legacies of systemic injustice should be treated on similar terms.
Assumptions
- A government can legitimately apologise for historical wrongs committed by earlier governments and institutions, and continuity of the state implies continuity of responsibility.
- Present-day disparities experienced by Black Britons are substantially causally linked to slavery's legacy rather than to other factors.
- An apology and reparative measures would produce tangible diplomatic, economic and social benefits.
- Public resistance to apology stems largely from lack of knowledge, which education can remedy.
- The 1833 compensation payments and modern repair measures are morally comparable uses of public funds.