The Big Payback

'Both timely and vital . . . There has never been greater need for a thoughtful discussion on race. This study of the case for reparations, which binds the past and present together so cleverly, is an important contribution.' Diane Abbott, Guardian

After abolishing the slave trade two centuries ago, the British government paid huge amounts of compensation to slave-owners. Only in 2015 did British taxpayers stop paying off this debt. How is it that slave-owners were paid compensation from our taxes, yet the enslaved and their families were not? Why should the descendants of former slave-owners still benefit from inherited wealth while the successors of the victims of slavery receive nothing, and may even have paid towards the debt of compensation through their taxes?

Beginning with these simple but startling questions and talking to reparation experts, economists, politicians and anti-racism campaigners, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder explore the burning issue of how to best resolve the ongoing inequality and racism resulting from four hundred years of slavery.