BBC Question Time viewers member blasts slavery reparation calls for | UK | News | EUROtoday

A heated debate over reparations for slavery erupted throughout BBC’s Question Time, as an viewers member dismissed calls for for compensation as “ridiculous.”

The debate aired reside from Plymouth this week and a part of it centered on whether or not the UK ought to allocate funds to atone for its colonial previous.

Emily Sheffield, a journalist on the panel, stated: “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 viewers member was then requested to talk and he wasn’t pleased with what he heard from the panel.

He stated: “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 carry individuals accountable for occasions that occurred centuries in the past. He stated: “Why should I pay for something that happened before I was alive to someone who wasn’t alive then?”

Sheffield responded, asking if the viewers member acknowledged the significance of discussing the problem.

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 additionally referenced Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, who stated the dialogue was not nearly cash, however “about appreciation of what our ancestors went through.”