Why did the Prime Minister of Barbados - who wants £3.9tn in reparations - visit Keir Starmer?
Mottley thinks the UK owes $24tn in reparations to 14 countries affected by transatlantic slavery
This week Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados visited Keir Starmer in Downing Street.
Coverage of the event was fairly minimal and Starmer’s X feed had no mention of the meeting.
The UK Prime Minister (official) X account briefly mentioned the meeting, focussing on the “strong relationship” between the UK and Barbados, and how Mottley had taken “action against the Russian shadow fleet”. A short Government press release was along similar lines.
You certainly wouldn’t realise that Starmer was meeting a woman who thinks Barbados is owed “$4.9tn (£3.9tn) by slave-owning nations”.
In 2023 she said:
“We’re not expecting that the reparatory damages will be paid in a year, or two, or five because the extraction of wealth and the damages took place over centuries. But we are demanding that we be seen and that we are heard”.
Very considerate!
A Guardian write up mentioned that Mottley had cited “calculations made in a report by the Brattle Group, which factors in the wealth and GDP amassed by countries that enslaved African people, she set out that the UK owes $24tn in reparations to 14 countries affected by transatlantic slavery, Spain owes $17.1tn, France owes $9.2tn and the Netherlands owes $4.86tn.”
So there you have it, she believes the UK owes $24tn in reparations to 14 countries affected by transatlantic slavery.
Perhaps Starmer can start paying it back with the funds made from the UK’s new Universal theme park…
The first time I became aware of Mottley, incidentally, is when I was researching the World’s Worst Economist, Professor Mariana Mazzucato, and discovered their joint trip to the Vatican last year (where Mazzucato kindly brought Pope Francis a copy of her book):
As you can see above, Mottley, who’s sporting a World Economic Forum badge and tipped to take over the World Health Organization when Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s five-year term ends, discusses “missions”…
… which Mazzucato is the architect of…
… and Starmer has incorporated into his government strategy:
So what was Mottley’s “mission” in meeting Starmer?
Could the UK’s alleged “$24tn” reparations bill formed part of the discussions?
After selling us out on the Chagos Islands, I wouldn’t be surprised…
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