By Robert Tombs

States that participated in the slave trade should build statues and monuments to black worthies, and censor school text books and curricula to impose the bien pensants view of “transatlantic chattel slavery”. Those are just a few of the recommendations of a report drawn up by two lawyers for the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Behind all this lies a demand for Western, and particularly British, self-abasement as a step towards unleashing vast rivers of cash. It would indeed be comical if we did not have a Government that is already determined to give away the Chagos Islands on equally spurious grounds and a Church of England that is stubbornly insisting on giving away £100m from non-existent slave-trading profits and urging others to do the same. The King is coming under similar pressure, including from ambassadors of Caribbean states.

On the face of it, why would we not welcome the report’s demands for “accurate, unbiased accounts”, “thorough research” and clear acknowledgement of “the wrongs of those who supported or benefited from historical atrocities”? Perhaps I am unduly cynical, but I suspect that what is really intended is the very opposite of what these honeyed words announce. But let us assume the authors of the report are sincere. In that case, what would the outcome of their demands be?