UK ready for reparations talks, says Sir Hilary

Britain is ready to hold structured talks with its former colonies in the Caribbean on reparations for chattel slavery, the chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, historian Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, has said.

“The British government is now prepared to have a structured conversation with the Caribbean in respect of reparations,” Sir Hilary said ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which opens on Tuesday in Antigua and Barbuda.

But while London was open to making an apology, it remained hesitant about financial compensation, said the prominent historian, a leading authority on slavery in the British West Indies and UWI vice-chancellor.