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The idea of Scottish political parties censoring historic connections with slavery is an interesting one. One bona fide case I'm aware was the (Labour led) Scottish Executive booklet in 2006-7 (188 changes were made to the work of historians). see here: https://romulusstudio.com/variant/pdfs/issue35/AeFondKiss.pdf
The first Homecoming in 2009 (a Labour idea, implemented by the SNP) was not much better and ignored the Scottish diaspora in the Caribbean. Attracted criticism at the time. notably from Prof. Geoff Palmer.
During the second Homecoming in 2014, the Scottish Government pre-empted the criticisms of five years earlier, sponsoring the July 2014 conference ‘The Global Migrations of the Scottish People since c.1600: Issues, Debates and Controversies’.
Fiona Hyslop SNP MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs of the Scottish Government, wrote the foreword for the conference whilst Humza Yousaf opened the session that included the panel ‘Scotland and Black Slavery’.
Now this conference might have been criticised on its own terms as a tokenistic effort, whilst the marketing focus remained on rich, white North America. But at the very least this was an important acknowledgement by the Scottish Government.
Some MPs have acknowledged Scotland’s connections with New World slavery in both the British and Scottish Parliaments. Anne McLaughlin’s maiden speech (SNP MP for Glasgow North-East) in July 2015, she supported calls for reparations for Caribbean countries from Great Britain.
McLaughlin was unequivocal: ‘I will support calls for reparations for those countries that suffered most from our involvement in the slave trade - namely, the Caribbean countries’
There's now cross-party support for a museum of slavery in Scotland, whilst the SNP administration in Glasgow and Edinburgh have launched studies on slavery and colonialism.
Even the most partisan British Nationalist would have to acknowledge progress since devolution, but want it both ways. Slavery studies are 'woke', 'rewriting history' etc. But the Scottish nationalists are supposedly burying the history of slavery. Which is it; woke or burying?
