UK Parliament / Open data

Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade

Adjournment debate on Tuesday, 20 March 2007, in the House of Commons, led by Lord Prescott. The answering member was Lord Hague of Richmond.
Debate on a motion for the adjournment on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
458 c687-785 
Session
2006-07
Department
Deputy Prime Minister
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Lord Prescott | 458 c687-8 (Link to this contribution) Today, the House commemorates the 200th anniversary of its legislation to abolish the appalling and ...
Lord Prescott | 458 c688-90 (Link to this contribution) No, and I will make that clear in my speech, as the hon. Gentleman did in the debate in Westminster ...

Show all contributions (113)
Anthony Steen | 458 c688 (Link to this contribution) The Deputy Prime Minister is right in what he says about William Wilberforce, and the whole House wo...
Michael Jabez Foster | 458 c690 (Link to this contribution) I had the privilege of meeting my right hon. Friend in Hastings, Sierra Leone, with which my own tow...
Lord Prescott | 458 c690-1 (Link to this contribution) That is a powerful statement. My hon. Friend, and my hon. Friend the Member for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 458 c691 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the role of the British Council in facilitating twinning betwee...
Lord Prescott | 458 c692-3 (Link to this contribution) I am aware of the issues to which my hon. Friend refers. The common experience is being considered a...
Anthony Steen | 458 c693 (Link to this contribution) The Deputy Prime Minister has not mentioned demand. The problem in this country is that trafficking ...
Lord Prescott | 458 c691-2 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that my hon. Friend has brought that to our attention. Every Member of the House who witne...
Fiona Mactaggart | 458 c692 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend will be aware that many countries are attempting to tackle the trafficking of w...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c695 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has managed to put that on record without my needing to stagger into the controve...
Chris Bryant | 458 c694-5 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman will know from his research that one of the most important battles that Wil...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c694 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to follow the Deputy Prime Minister and a huge pleasure to agree with almost ...
Lord Prescott | 458 c693-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman made exactly those points in previous debates. They have some substance, to say t...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c697 (Link to this contribution) Yes. Being only part way through my historical analysis, I wanted to come to Haiti—in a moment, in f...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c696-7 (Link to this contribution) Well, I am sure that that was added to by the House of Commons, although my hon. Friend must remembe...
Diane Abbott | 458 c697 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman said that this was the first country in Europe to abolish slavery, which is...
William Cash | 458 c696 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend also recall that during the civil war Abraham Lincoln was described as hav...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c696 (Link to this contribution) Funnily enough, the American Congress abolished the slave trade at roughly the same time that the Br...
Jim Cunningham | 458 c696 (Link to this contribution) Why did Jefferson, who was quite an enlightened American President round about that time, never take...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c696 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman need not fear that I am moving on from my historical analysis. It is not often th...
Wayne David | 458 c695 (Link to this contribution) Before the right hon. Gentleman moves on from his historical analysis, will he acknowledge how funda...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c695 (Link to this contribution) Yes, the Clapham sect is one of the most extraordinary evangelical and reforming groups of people ev...
Martin Linton | 458 c695 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the vicar of Holy Trinity church, Clapham, also played a ve...
Anthony Steen | 458 c701 (Link to this contribution) The whole House is fascinated by my right hon. Friend’s exposition. Will he comment on the fact that...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c701-2 (Link to this contribution) I agree. I will conclude my speech soon, but I want to touch on that point. Along with all Members o...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c698-9 (Link to this contribution) Let me use that intervention to turn to my next point, in the interests of someone else being able t...
Jane Kennedy | 458 c698 (Link to this contribution) I compliment the right hon. Gentleman on an entertaining and informative speech. I am learning a lot...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c699-701 (Link to this contribution) It turned out that women were in a powerful position to impose that boycott, for the reasons that th...
Diana Johnson | 458 c699 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman has referred to the sugar boycott. Does he agree that women led the way in ...
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton | 458 c697 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend mentions the stoic perseverance of many individuals. I ask him to join me in ac...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c698 (Link to this contribution) That is an important point, because the campaign was not just a parliamentary campaign. Thomas Clark...
Dawn Butler | 458 c706 (Link to this contribution) Many historians feel that the reparations made to the French, amounting to the equivalent of about £...
Diane Abbott | 458 c704 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to stretch the thought too far; I just put it to the House that if we read the account...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 458 c704 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the very observation that she makes about Jamaica may also be an expl...
Diane Abbott | 458 c703-4 (Link to this contribution) The Government are to be congratulated on the arrangements that they have made to celebrate the bice...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c702-3 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady is quite right to point that out and I am not arguing in any way that nothing has been...
Diane Abbott | 458 c706 (Link to this contribution) The history of Indian indentured labour is not as well known as it should be, but those labourers we...
Sadiq Khan | 458 c706 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend speaks of a 300-year legacy. Between 1837 and 1918, half a million Indian indentured ...
Diane Abbott | 458 c705-6 (Link to this contribution) There is no doubt that both Africans and Arabs were involved in the slave trade, but I am going to m...
William Cash | 458 c704-5 (Link to this contribution) In the historical context of the issues that she is dealing with, does the hon. Lady also recognise,...
Mary Creagh | 458 c702 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman is not aware of some of the actions that our embassies and consulat...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c712 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to be able to take part in this debate, which I congratulate the Government on hold...
Vincent Cable | 458 c710-2 (Link to this contribution) Yes, indeed. I am less familiar with that work than with Eric Williams’s book, but the hon. Gentlema...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c712-3 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree, and as I was on the committee that asked the school to take part, I duly congrat...
Sadiq Khan | 458 c712 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend will be aware that, for the first time in our history, the exhibition will have a wri...
Diane Abbott | 458 c706-8 (Link to this contribution) That is an important point. In the Empire, in the slave-trading territories themselves, slaves were...
Hywel Francis | 458 c710 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman rightly paid tribute to Eric Williams’s work as an historian. Will he join me in ...
Vincent Cable | 458 c708-9 (Link to this contribution) I, too, should like to congratulate the Government on the way in which they have led the commemorati...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c713-5 (Link to this contribution) There is no evidence to the contrary, either. A couple of weeks ago, I was at an interesting meeting...
Stephen Williams | 458 c713 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is quite right about Edward Colston, who was notorious in Bristol as someone who ...
Sarah Teather | 458 c715 (Link to this contribution) I was interested in the hon. Gentleman’s point about people turning a blind eye and to financial gai...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 458 c727 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Does he share my slight puzzlement at the Government’s ...
Anthony Steen | 458 c728 (Link to this contribution) The number is five now—I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. There are thus another five to go,...
Speaker | 458 c728 (Link to this contribution) Order. Will the hon. Gentleman relate his remarks a little more directly to the subject under discus...
Anthony Steen | 458 c728-30 (Link to this contribution) I will obviously follow your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. However, I hope that you will not think...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 458 c730 (Link to this contribution) I would like to offer the hon. Gentleman some reassurance. I received a letter this morning from the...
Anthony Steen | 458 c730-2 (Link to this contribution) That is very reassuring, but it cannot be reassuring to the boys who were watering the cannabis plan...
Diana Johnson | 458 c732 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to the excellent and powerful speeches made by my hon. Friends the Members for Hackney...
Barry Sheerman | 458 c732 (Link to this contribution) It should be borne in mind that there were other Members of Parliament before Wilberforce. Many peop...
Diana Johnson | 458 c734-6 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and she is absolutely right—if we considered the issue purely on gr...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 458 c734 (Link to this contribution) I should like to put it on record that what Hull has achieved is wonderful. It is really remarkable,...
Diana Johnson | 458 c732-4 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend. That is another part of the great history that surrounds today’s de...
Malcolm Moss | 458 c739-40 (Link to this contribution) Mrs. Woollard has also contacted me and I have replied to her. We cannot claim to be doing as much a...
Malcolm Moss | 458 c736-9 (Link to this contribution) May I begin by saying that it is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, North ...
John Hayes | 458 c739 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is giving a superb account of the work of Clarkson. Will he, as suggested by my const...
Malcolm Moss | 458 c740-2 (Link to this contribution) That’s all right, then. We are indeed promoting Wisbech and Thomas Clarkson and doing our bit for th...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 458 c742-7 (Link to this contribution) I should like to share with the House two perspectives on slavery that relate to my own spheres of a...
Dawn Butler | 458 c718-20 (Link to this contribution) It is difficult to know where to start in this important debate. Listening to some of the historical...
Hywel Francis | 458 c720 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very powerful case about the change needed in respect of teaching black histo...
Dawn Butler | 458 c720 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend, who makes an important point. I have had the pleasure of listening to Paul R...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c715 (Link to this contribution) I, too, often wonder that when I see those obscene advertisements around the place. Often, society i...
Ann McKechin | 458 c715 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend rightly identified the exploitation of labour in developing countries. Does he also a...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c716 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. For many of the poorest people in the shanty towns of Africa and on the periphery of the...
Lord Cormack | 458 c716-8 (Link to this contribution) I do not always agree with much of what the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) says, b...
Dawn Butler | 458 c721 (Link to this contribution) I agree with that wholeheartedly. I cannot stress too much the importance of teaching positive black...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c721 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend join me in hoping that when the Government reply to the debate, or other debates...
Dawn Butler | 458 c721 (Link to this contribution) I agree. As I said earlier, I am an angry black woman because I was not taught my history in school....
Anthony Steen | 458 c723-7 (Link to this contribution) This debate pays tribute to a remarkable man. William Wilberforce’s achievements were immense and ha...
Meg Munn | 458 c727 (Link to this contribution) I was merely making the point that when someone is charged, there is a process to go through. Obviou...
David Winnick | 458 c722 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech. As she represents Brent, may I tell her, if she does not...
Dawn Butler | 458 c723 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. Brent is the most diverse constituency in the UK. I w...
Dawn Butler | 458 c722 (Link to this contribution) I believe it is. I am sure we can iron out the details and date later—[Interruption.] I must continu...
Sadiq Khan | 458 c721 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend may be aware that the Mayor of London is working to make 23 August a day when Londone...
Dawn Butler | 458 c721-2 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. The African emancipation day is an important date. I shall be working with the Mayor, wh...
Anthony Steen | 458 c727 (Link to this contribution) I quite understand that, but the point is that the numbers are trivial. Only 132 people have been ch...
Mary Creagh | 458 c751-3 (Link to this contribution) It is an honour and a privilege to speak in the parliamentary debate on such a great historic occasi...
Meg Munn | 458 c753 (Link to this contribution) I understand from my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling that that figure is now some years out of da...
Mary Creagh | 458 c753-6 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. That figure was first announced in a meeting with the Joint C...
Lord Young of Cookham | 458 c756-8 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh). She made a thoughtful speech...
Martin Linton | 458 c769-71 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, and to follow many good speeches, particularly the ope...
Sammy Wilson | 458 c769 (Link to this contribution) I thought that you might warn me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, so I shall move on. I simply wish to say that ...
Tobias Ellwood | 458 c762-6 (Link to this contribution) I greatly enjoyed the contribution of the hon. Member for Glasgow, North (Ann McKechin), who wove as...
Ann McKechin | 458 c758-62 (Link to this contribution) Those of us who have been present in the Chamber today have enjoyed an informative historical analys...
Speaker | 458 c769 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman is pushing the limits of the debate further even than I could have believe...
Sammy Wilson | 458 c766-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the debate and to welcome, on behalf of my party...
Alistair Burt | 458 c775-80 (Link to this contribution) It is a profound honour to wind up for the Opposition in a debate that has never failed, in any spee...
Meg Munn | 458 c780-2 (Link to this contribution) This has been an extraordinary debate and I am deeply honoured to respond to it on behalf of the Gov...
Stephen Williams | 458 c772-5 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure whether slavery is pretty active in Bristol. I heard the hon. Gentleman’s speech and h...
Stephen Williams | 458 c771-2 (Link to this contribution) It is interesting to follow the hon. Member for Battersea (Martin Linton), who was quite parochial i...
Meg Munn | 458 c785 (Link to this contribution) I certainly will. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister said clearly—I think that it was on...
Diane Abbott | 458 c785 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend respond to the query put by my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Ms Butle...
Meg Munn | 458 c782-5 (Link to this contribution) That is precisely the sort of detail that I should have liked to have had time to go into, but I pro...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 458 c747-50 (Link to this contribution) The range of speeches in the debate has shown a balance between dwelling on the offence and commemor...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c698 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman will also acknowledge that much of the campaigning outlined ...
Anthony Steen | 458 c772 (Link to this contribution) Has the hon. Gentleman any idea of how much new slavery there is in Bristol? Has he any idea of how ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 458 c782 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. Any education about the slave trade is obviously very welcome...
Anthony Steen | 458 c727 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman puts that point very well. I do not mind about the signing too much, but I ...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 458 c697 (Link to this contribution) This is becoming an interesting geographical and historical tour. John Newton was important partly i...
Diane Abbott | 458 c720 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important for young black people to learn about the black invol...
Subjects
Children
Anniversaries
Women
Human rights
Human trafficking
Forced labour
Prostitution
United Nations
Slavery
International Labour Organization
Wilberforce, William
Link
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