Thread by @AndyGJBurge

On #PoliticsLive there was a short discussion about slavery reparation and the fund set up by Laura Trevelyan. Having attended @HaileyburyUK College (also Clement Attlee's school) I know something about the Trevelyan family - so here's a 🧵 /1

The name Trevelyan is 'celebrated' at @HaileyburyUK, with a Boarding House named after Charles Trevelyan, created first Baronet of Wallington in 1874. Charles Trevelyan was the son of George Trevelyan who was handsomely compensated for the loss of hundreds of slaves /2

whom he 'owned' in the West Indies. This compensation was the equivalent of £millions today and will have, with prudent investment, grown into £billions. The debt incurred by the British government to compensate slave owners was only paid off in 2015. /3

So while the gesture made in recent months by Laura Trevelyan to set up an education fund with £100,000 is welcome, it comes nowhere near the amount of money from which the Trevelyan family benefitted from the loss of their 'property' /4

Further, no actual descendants of the enslaved have received a penny for their ancestors' unpaid labour, or their suffering. To complete the picture, Charles Trevelyan began his career in the employ of the East India Company where his priggish attitude endeared him to no-one /5

He returned to the UK to work in the Treasury during both the Irish and the Highland Famines where his job was to administer famine relief. He did administer some relief in Scotland but not in Ireland /6

His deliberate inaction and negative attitude towards the Irish people slowed relief for the famine there and was a major contributory factor to the deaths of a million people. /7

The Irish watched with increasing fury as boatloads of homegrown oats and grain departed on schedule from their shores for shipment to England. /8

Food riots erupted Youghal, Cork, where people tried to confiscate boatloads of oats. At Dungarvan, in County Waterford, British troops were pelted with stones. Eventually the British resorted to naval escorts. /9

Maybe @labourlewis might read some history about the Trevelyans if he hasn't already done so and ask if a mere £100k in educational resources is suitable compensation for the ancestors of the enslaved and whether the ancestors of the starved Irish deserve some retribution /Ends

@labourlewis *descendants* of the enslaved .. apols