Should The Uk Now Compensate For What Was The 'rule Of Thumb', During The Days Of Our Colonial Rule?

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/27/african-war-veterans-paid-less-than-white-peers-will-not-get-uk-payout

[jackthehat]

Well, to do so would certainly be seen as a conciliatory gesture and it wouldn't cost the UK purse too much seeing as there will be few of these veterans left.

It would be a good way to level that playing field you so often mention...

[Spicerack]

They weren't 'employed' by Britain.
I did have a modicum of sympathy for them until I read that.

[spathiphyllum]

I think it would be a fine gesture.

AOG you're always talking about war.

Don't you think these vets deserve every penny for saving our country from turmoil?

Or do you think it's OK to forget about all that now and just get on with how things are?

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

Wouldn't cost much?????

But it wouldn't stop there would it, there are plenty of people still alive who served and worked for the British during the days of Colonial rule, peoples who came from countries who were paid a wage that was on the level of the country they came from.

[jackthehat]

This proposal seems to refer solely to war veterans.....unless you know better, of course?

[anotheoldgit]

spathiphyllum

/// AOG you're always talking about war. ///

No I am not, but it is about such papers such as the Guardian etc. that are always going on about how we should be compensating and apologising for some of what took place in our distant past.

Take slavery for instant, will we ever be allowed to forget that, although it seem it is only the British and Americans who are constantly taken to task over it, when throughout the time man has been on this earth, slavery has taken place, by every nation on this earth, so why should only the British and American now still be condemned?

Then of course there is the matter over how we should return some artefacts that we acquired during our days of discovery and Empire building.

[spathiphyllum]

You missed out the two questions i actually had, and instead responded about a passing comment.

[jackthehat]

There has been a question posted elsewhere which asks 'what happened to honour and integrity?', surely those two attributes would be served by compensating old soldiers who served in the cause of the Empire in WW2?

[Old_Geezer]

It is the slippery slope argument which means what is encompassed now need not remain an isolated incident. Maybe a gesture of goodwill, no admission of responsibility, might satisfy sufficiently.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// This proposal seems to refer solely to war veterans.....unless you know better, of course? ///

That maybe. but surely you are not naive enough into believing that once one get their wishes, then there are others waiting to jump on the band wagon?

[Zacs-Master]

I think JTH is asking who these ‘others’ are, AOG.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// surely those two attributes would be served by compensating old soldiers who served in the cause of the Empire in WW2? ///

They got the paying rate for the job, just as all serving soldiers did, by that I mean the going rate that equated to the going rate in the country that they came from.

And don't forget that WW2 was a World War and that foreign troops were not just fighting for the British, but also fighting to defend their own counties from domination by the Axis.

[jackthehat]

///White soldiers from those colonies received a gratuity worth triple that offered to black troops.///

Hardly a level playing field.
And as far as I remember, the Axis weren't threatening Kenya.

[naomi24]

JTH, //Kenya bordered Italian East Africa to the north, and at the start of the war, it was feared that the much larger Italian army would advance into Kenya as it had into British Somaliland. //

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_in_World_War_II

[naomi24]

No, we shouldn't compensate them. They were employed by their own government.

[jackthehat]

D'oh....I had forgotten that, naomi.
Particularly stupid of me since I have been to the chapel built by Italian POWs.

https://karamvisuals.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/church-built-by-italian-prisoners-of-world-war-2-in-kenya/

But my point still stands,
///White soldiers from those colonies received a gratuity worth triple that offered to black troops.///

[naomi24]

I guess the gratuity was scaled down to reflect Kenyan life which seems fair enough.

[youngmafbog]

//White soldiers from those colonies received a gratuity worth triple that offered to black troops.///


Were the white soldiers paid by the same Government? If so you have a point, if not then you dont.

[Spicerack]

Zacs-Master/// I think JTH is asking who these ‘others’ are, AOG.///

Every Democrat in the Presidential election has promised reparations to the descendants of slaves.
One of the front-runners, Pocahontas, has also promised reparations to gay people.
You can see how this reparations game can be abused by unscrupulous politicians.

[sevenOP]

"White soldiers from those colonies received a gratuity worth triple that offered to black troops."

Shameful lack of 'British values' ?

"It is the slippery slope argument which means what is encompassed now need not remain an isolated incident. Maybe a gesture of goodwill, no admission of responsibility, might satisfy sufficiently."

Plausible - financial and moral - deniability ?

"No, we shouldn't compensate them. They were employed by their own government."

No they were not -
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/03/britain-s-violent-conscription-african-soldiers-finally-coming-light

"I guess the gratuity was scaled down to reflect Kenyan life which seems fair enough."

Colonial imperialist talk, possibly racist.