Notting Hill Carnival. Just 70 arrests ?

[whiffey]

Is this good squeezy ? LBC has broadcast nothing all day except how good the Notting Hill Carnival is. The theme is the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and we are reminded by the organisers that thousands of people are still slaves in the world. So, are these black slaves under a white overseer, or it it something else.

Only 70 arrests, must be great !! but for yet another year I found something else to do.

[anotheoldgit]

According to the news there were two shootings and a stabbing with 220 arrests by midnight, in fact the council are stating that the carnival must wind down much earlier next year. There was 4,000 police on duty, it's a pity there cannot be the same numbers on the streets normaly perhaps this would cut down the amount of crime we are now seeing?

[NJOK]

You'd really like to see that many police normally?

You mention that 4,000 police officers were on duty for the Notting Hill Carnival. The Carnival covers 3.5 square miles.

The UK is 93,000 square miles - more than 26,500 times the size of the Carnival area. To police the entire UK in the same way as the Notting Hill Carnival would require 106 million police officers.

The current population is 60.5 million. (Those of working age number only 40 million. But let's gloss over that.)

So not only would every man, woman and child in the UK have to join the police force, we'd also have to recruit 45 million police officers from somewhere.

But how? More immigration?

[anotheoldgit]

I was listening to Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC this morning and he was asking if we should apologise for The Slave Trade .

An excerpt from LBC's site

London Mayor Ken Livingstone wept as he apologised for London�s role in the slave trade last week. This morning Kofi Mawuli Klu, the Joint Coordinator of Rendezvous of Victory, the group who fight on against slavery, joined us to say he applauds the apology.

Kofi Mawuli Klu constantly tried to talk over Nick Farrari as did other callers of African descent. Even when Nick asked Kofi Mawuli Klu ( who had accused Whites of institutional racism towards Blacks) to name one recent instance of institutional racism he just ignored the question and continued to shouted over Nick.

When Nick asked one caller if the present day German people should constantly opologise for the gassing of Jews only 60 odd years ago, the caller said no. To which Nick replied, then why are we constantly being asked to apologise for something that happened over 250 year ago. But once again he was over shouted.

Very many horrible things happened to peoples of all races in distant times, when the value of life was not held in the same esteem as it is today, (even though even today we could make many improvements), but while we should never forget, we should move on.

[NJOK]

Germany doesn't need to constantly<i/> apologise. Nor does the UK.

The difference is that Germany has been absolutely unequivocal in apologising for its treatment of Jews.

The British government has never made a formal apology.

So it's slightly bogus to compare the two. Of course, Nick knows this full well.

[Booldawg]

Whiffey - were you aware that your ancestors were personally involved in the slave trade? as being white that surely must be the case. This is the opinion that SP1814 was offering. What percentage of white people in the west were either involved in or contributed to the slave trade? Maybe less than 1% Who knows? Most of the country was impoverished to the hiearchy and either heavily levvied tennant farmers or put into service. Besides we're always being reminded that UK is a mix-match of races and we have no heritage or clear blood-line so guess we're all in the clear!

I'm under the impression that my ancestors were about as involved in the slave trade as SP1814s ancestors were in cannibalism or ritualistic voodoo murders.

[sp1814]

Booldawg

You're misrepresenting me.

Bad man (or woman...you can't tell with sign-in names).

[Twenty20]

You did actually say sp1814 'These were your ancestors...something to be proud of surely?'

You wrote it in a separate paragraph, so I've not taken it out of the context that you wrote it.

Bit difficult to say that someone is misrepresenting you now. Of course, you may be 100% right that they were his ancestors but I don't know how you'd know that?

[NJOK]

It's academic anyway. No-one's expecting, or asking, Booldawg to apologise. He's misunderstood.

The state was complicit in this horrifying practice, which is why the state should have the balls to say sorry. That means the government.

[Booldawg]

Lord Wilberforce, who was white, finally out-lawed slavery in 18 hundred and something, I know this because we learnt it in history, between wasting 2 years learning about the economics of Sao Paolo in Geography. Therefore my ancestors have more than redeemed themselves in this area - no apology is necessary. Has Africa ever apologised for Bill Cosby? No.

[ruby27]

What I can never understand when this subject is debated, is why is apologising perceived as such a threat to white people?. What is the problems in saying that was terrible, our wealth today is still in part based on the slave trade and it just goes to show how vile human beings were on a grand scale. ( We still can be in other ways but those are different threads) A public apology by the government for atrocious behaviour by a previous government is hardly going to be the end of British society. What is the worst thing that could happen. Especially when it may do many black British good.

[sp1814]

Nope...re-read what I wrote:


This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by the British Parliament.

These were your ancestors...something to be proud of surely?

See?

I'm talking about the abolitionists there...which is indeed something to be proud of!!!

[Booldawg]

Don't you just hate it when someones always right? *hangs head in shame*