Alex Renton
@axrenton
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Writer, broadcaster, FRHistS. Books: #BloodLegacy (2021) slavery & my family's part in it. #StiffUpperLip (2017) abuse in Britain's elite schools.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Joined February 2011
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Wrote a piece for the Times about my family's history of slavery and Britain's need to acknowledge/address the ongoing legacy of inequality and racism. Read it for free, with sources, here
#BloodLegacy
@canongatebooks
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Tory MP Richard Drax is owner of a vast estate in Dorset and of Drax Hall in Barbados - both bought by his enslaver ancestors. See
@plashmar
’s work on this, one of the larger slavery fortunes still intact and increasing in Britain today. Talk about windfalls…
latest from the Commons, Tory MP Richard Drax (who has an estimated fortune of £150m) accuses chancellor Rishi Sunak of “throwing red meat to socialists” with his energy support package
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@NickyAACampbell
and dozens more have come forward about the abuse they suffered at private schools since we broadcast
#InDarkCorners
. Important: this is not over. We need mandatory reporting to protect children and whistleblowers.
@mandatenow
@iicsa
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Triumph for the
@edinburghacad
survivors - former housemaster John Brownlee found guilty on 38 charges of cruelty and violent abuse of the children in his care, over 20 years.
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Code for - ‘We tried to drag
@nationaltrust
and its members into our culture war and failed.’ Just keep an eye on where else Legatum and its backers are spending money.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes, the director of Restore Trust, is stepping down, she says, to focus on her position as a senior researcher at the Legatum Institute, a right-wing think tank based in London.
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"It's a miracle" says father of girl who beat leukaemia. Actually, it was a brilliant adjustment of her DNA by scientists.
@RichardDawkins
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A year ago,
@thesundaytimes
published a dishonest Jeremy Clarkson column which repeated a series of slavery denialist claims. Yesterday, after months of argument + intervention from
@IPSONews
, the paper finally printed this correction. Here's why it matters. 1/14
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@edinburghacad
This long-awaited prosecution - and more pending re
@Fettes_College
and
@edinburghacad
- are because of the bravery of dozens of ex-pupils and the work of
@NickyAACampbell
. Starts with
@_caitlinasmith
and my radio series
#InDarkCorners
. BBC Sounds.
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Our Radio 4 series on abuse and cover-up in elite boarding schools won
@BPGPressGuild
Best Programme yesterday. To protect the 160k children in residential care today, we STILL need proper mandatory reporting. Like other countries have.
@mandatenow
@_caitlinasmith
#InDarkCorners
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Wow! Wild Britain... Just found this hawk (what sort?) killing a pigeon outside John Lewis, Edinburgh. Cheered me.
http://t.co/UEEli9IlrT
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This is a huge moment in the long history of British enslavement of African people. Repair and reconciliation begin with acknowledgement and apology. Well done Charles Gladstone, fellow member of
@HeirsofSlavery
, and his family.
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As the National Trust's scholarship and honesty is under attack today, I'm proud that on Thursday we will meet in my slave-owning ancestor's house
@NewhailesNTS
and acknowledge this history and its continuing, toxic legacy.
#NationalTrustAGM
@N_T_S
@corinne_fowler
@edincarib
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Alleged prolific paedophile teacher 'Edgar' was arrested in Cape Town this morning on charges of sexual assault committed at a school there, AFTER he was let go, with a reference, by
@Fettes_College
and
@edinburghacad
@NickyAACampbell
#mandatoryreporting
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Breaking - ministers
@JamesCleverly
and
@alexchalk
finally announce child sexual abuse legislation, and it is even more feeble than everyone had predicted. A licence to cover-up
#CSA
. Seven years of
@iicsa
for this?
@mrjamesob
@NickyAACampbell
@NSPCC
@mandatenow
We now have the government's legislative proposal in response to the IICSA public inquiry's recommendation on mandatory reporting of child sex abuse.
It is utterly useless, and it is clearly intended to be that way. The following 🧵 explains why.
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'No space to say “please, stop, this is terrifying, I want to go home”' -
@hugorifkind
is excellent on how boarding schools 'normalised brutality'. But are we sure children in residential care - private or public - are safe today?
@mandatenow
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See
@mandatenow
for analysis of this dreadful piece of legislation - a betrayal of the government's promise to tens of thousands of child sexual abuse survivors that children in care today would be safer than we were.
@NickyAACampbell
@mrjamesob
@cspencer1508
"They can decide their own abuse isn't reported as 'it's in the child's best interest not to.'"
With the government failing to bring in law on the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse in institutions, journalist and survivor Alex Renton points out flaws in the system.
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This is the right thing. My slave-owning ancestors bought grand houses here; this news makes me prouder to be an Edinburgher today. British slavery’s story is not over. Thank you
@SirGeoffPalmer
and the team.
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As an Edinburgher, I am deeply connected to the city. Apology and acknowledgement are a good start in addressing the ongoing consequences of the crimes that helped build it.
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Why doesn’t Scotland start talking to the Caribbean nations about the legacies of transatlantic slavery, since the UK govt refuses to? My piece for the Herald.
#reparations
#reconciliation
@SirGeoffPalmer
@afuahirsch
@CRR_UWI
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Today the PM complained that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute the child abuser Jimmy Savile. In April 2019 he complained that police spending on child abuse investigations was money "spaffed up the wall".
#BorisTheLiar
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My letter published in the Times this morning. Since then many White men have told me what Black people ‘deserve’, and what they should think.
@VereneAShep
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Huge moment. ‘An appalling atrocity,' says Prince Charles of transatlantic slavery. No British royal - or Prime Minister - has come as close to apologising for the 250 years of state-sanctioned exploitation and murder.
#Barbados
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Charles Spencer's brave, angry revelations about sexual and psychological abuse at his boarding school
@MaidwellHall
are vital reading for those who want to make children in care safe today.
@mandatenow
@cspencer1508
@JamesCleverly
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My old science teacher from Ashdown House is out of jail after only six years. One of the many he abused when they were little boys died last year - a dear friend, still troubled by Haigh's horrific assaults.
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After a long wait for dozens of
@edinburghacad
survivors.
Five men, aged between 69 and 90, have been arrested and charged in connection with non-recent abuse at Edinburgh Academy. Reports will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.
A sixth man, aged 74, will also be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
READ MORE:
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One of the alleged abusers in
@NickyAACampbell
's story taught at
@edinburghacad
and
@Fettes_College
for 10 years - despite teachers, governors + parents knowing the terrible risk to children. He is still alive, abroad - cover-ups go on.
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Good to see
@timesscotland
and
@Ianblackford_MP
withstand pressure and do the right thing, naming the alleged predatory paedophile accused of targeting dozens of children in Scottish + South African schools over decades
@magnusllewellin
@NickyAACampbell
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Appalling stories emerging from ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry’s hearings on
@edinburghacad
. An elite private school with more than 20 staff accused of abuse of hundreds of children. Nearly 50 years for the truth to emerge, and still no prosecutions.
#InDarkCorners
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This history can't be changed: our responsibility is to the present. We have to call it out when we see the powerful propagating the lies that excuse British slavery: lies told 200 years ago by the pro-slavery lobby and still toxifying Britain now. 14/14
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My research quoted here
@byameliahill
. A weird misconception that it is only men who prey on children in residential care, or that child abuse by women is less severe/physical/damaging.
#csa
@suzannezeedyk
@mandatenow
#stiffupperlip
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My new book - Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class. Out 6th April 2017, pre-order from the usual...
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A country addicted to cover-up. Since this story went up yesterday, I've had a dozen more disclosures about abusers in schools whose activities were ignored.
‘Jimmy Savile mark II’: why was an alleged child abuser able to move from school to school?
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British private schools and their North Korean approach to teaching slavery history -
@anitathetweeter
reports our Hay Festival talk for the Daily Telegraph.
@hugh_muir
#BloodLegacy
@canongatebooks
@hayfestival
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We've launched
@heirsofslavery
. If you want to get in touch or get involved, see heirsofslavery. org.
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This last was bollocks: old bollocks at that. No historian supports it. Britain enslaved over 3 million Africans and their descendants over 250 years: the many enterprises dependent on it were worth 11% of GDP in the early C19th. The taxes helped finance the Napoleonic wars 4/14
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Proud to have been elected a Fellow of
@RoyalHistSoc
. Profile adjusted accordingly. The things you can do with
#ADHD
…
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Big news in the long task of getting two of Britain's most prolific school-based paedophiles to face justice - in conversation with
@NickyAACampbell
and a brave survivor who got in touch with us from South Africa. Listen from 1:15
#CSA
#InDarkCorners
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“Releese us out of this Cruell Bondegg” - amazing 1723 document from Church of England archives, a plea to the 'arch Bishop of London' from an enslaved person in Virginia. CofE is at last addressing its involvement in British transatlantic slavery.
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Questions: why would a serious newspaper, signed to the Editor’s Code, fight so hard to defend an obvious untruth and the hate-speech it supported (see the comments online)? Are celebrity columnists just too powerful for honest editing?
#WarOnWoke
? 8/14
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Teachers and academics are working honestly and inclusively to improve our history curriculum. They face hate whipped up by people like Clarkson and his fans. See the vicious attacks on historian
@corinne_fowler
over her work for the
@NationalTrust
9/14
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Peaceful protesters seeking peace - Edinburgh's St Andrew's Sq just now. But then we don't have Suella Braverman.
#CeasefireInGazaNOW
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Our BBC R4 series In Dark Corners gets two more nominations - having won Best Programme from
@BPGPressGuild
last week. Thanks to producer
@_caitlinasmith
and the team, and above all the brave survivors who trusted us with their stories of abuse and its cover-up.
@mandatenow
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@cspencer1508
speaking for all children blighted by residential institutions, state and private, then and now.
The Times 12.3.24
"It killed a part of me; it killed the gentler part of me. For us to survive in that environment, a small but important part of us had to die".
#averyprivateschool
Govt must introduce well-designed
#MR
(law) of known + suspected CSA
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Another of the alleged serial violent abusers who were tolerated for years by Edinburgh Academy named. Still living in the city.
@NickyAACampbell
@edinburghacad
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Worked with a Sunday Times team to reveal that 500 British boarding schools have had allegations of abuse against them: psychological, sexual, physical. This is not just historic: children in residential care are not safe yet.
@mandatenow
#CSA
@bsa
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Clarkson says he fears 'being cancelled' - yet he and other Times right-wing columnists are clearly pretty much inviolable. Their work enables the racist hate you see in the papers' online comments - a serious problem, as Times assistant editor Rose Wild has acknowledged. 10/14
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Discussing Scotland, the Empire and the future with
@DalrympleWill
and
@SirGeoffPalmer
at Beyond Borders
@traquairhouse
tomorrow.
Wrote this for
@heraldscotland
on the Caribbean story and talking reparations. Comments below are - ahem - interesting ...
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Interesting letters on the effects, psychological and social, of British boarding school culture.
@joyschaverien
@nickduffell
and others. Let's not forget state residential care and the horrors there.
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Salmon want out. We sailed past this high-intensity automated
@scotseafarms
facility at dawn today in Sound of Mull. Apparently a million unsold fish are in Scottish cages at the moment. Sad + areal environmental nasty.
#fishfarming
@TheGAAIA
@seawilding
@JoannaBlythman
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@aljhlester
Bearing in mind too that Drax's house and 7,000 acres in Dorset, Charcombe Park, derive from the profits the family made in sugar and slavery.
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'In Dark Corners' - a series looking at abuse and cover-ups in Britain's grandest schools - and what that has meant more widely - by
@_caitlinasmith
and me, starts Friday, 11am, BBC R4.
#CSA
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And who are these ideologically corrupt teachers who he thinks are perverting British history? Aren't the teachers with a political problem those who taught Clarkson – and me – the partial and rose-tinted account of empire that he now wants to defend? 11/14
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Clarkson was repeating a common slavery denialists' trope - his 'research' no more than a repetition of another right-wing journalist's old opinions. Easy to put right, you'd think - and several Sunday Times journalists agreed it should be. 5/14
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@NeilMackay
Great piece - I was at Eton and Ashdown House with Johnson - more about that and abuse both psychological and physical at these boarding chools in our recent
@BBCRadio4
series -
@_caitlinasmith
#CSA
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As the parent of children educated in Scotland, I can say this is absolutely right.
It’s time for Scots to confront role in India: "Scotland’s role in the colonial exploitation of India should be taught in schools... Dalrymple argues that younger generations are largely unaware of the shameful episode in the nation’s past."
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In Dark Corners: abuse and cover-up in the schools where the future British elite were taught.
@_caitlinasmith
and I have worked a while on this, with the help of many brave people. First episode 17 June.
#InDarkCorners
@BBCRadio4
#CSA
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When 'Edgar' - one of the violently abusive men in
@NickyAACampbell
's story - left
@Fettes_College
in disgrace in 1979, the head wrote a job reference for him for a junior school in South Africa. Edgar ‘came out of a good stable’: he was a ‘thoroughbred’.
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Pleased to hear that
@AshdownHouse
, a private boarding school for children that harboured and protected many paedophiles, is at last to close.
#CSE
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Been asked a lot if I “approve of tearing down statues”. Answers: 1. Don’t ask me. 2.
@SimuChigudu
on Cecil Rhodes’ statue - “It is not a sterile historical relic... it is a piece of self-conscious propaganda for as long as it stands.”
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Edinburgh fringe tip - I was gripped by the true story of an enslaved woman in C 18th Virginia who dared write to the 'arch Bishop of London' asking for help. Brilliantly researched, written AND performed by
@desibaptiste
#edfringe23
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So many
#CSA
survivors getting in touch to express anger & disgust at the government's dishonest fudge on child protection law & mandatory reporting. 'Why did we bother speaking up?'
Well done Prof Alexis Jay of
@iicsa
for calling it out.
@mandatenow
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The stats that we’ve got are more shocking than this - police have had at least 425 accusations against individuals of sexual abuse in boarding schools since 2012, at least 160 people charged, 31 ongoing investigations. It’s not “all in the past”.
#SecretShame
#ITVExposure
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It's out: 48 Scottish National Trust properties named in
@N_T_S
'Facing Our Past' report, most because of slavery links.
@FlagUpScotJam
@SirGeoffPalmer
@edincarib
@glasgow_sugar
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@NicolaSturgeon
please reshuffle minister
@FergusEwingSNP
somewhere he can do no more damage! 5 years abetting industrial fishing's mad destruction of Scotland's inner seas is enough.
@ourseas_scot
@seawilding
@robedwards53
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We told this story, with some very brave survivors in UK and in South Africa, in our BBC Radio 4 series In Dark Corners, produced by
@_caitlinasmith
On BBC Sounds
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I wrote on the power of acknowledgement in the Guardian today.
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The story. Back in Feb 2021, Clarkson in his weekly column had a pop at history teachers and other 'muddle-headed lefties who hate Britain' who – this time – he accused of covering up the positive stories from Britain’s slavery history. 2/14
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Covid tourism. Over there 'in paradise', 75% of Jamaicans are still waiting for a first dose of vaccine. But they did get
@Amanda_Statham
and her antivax husband.
#antivaxxers
#Jamaica
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Gripping live report from
@lindseyhilsum
in a brilliant
@Channel4News
Ukraine round-up. Thank you.
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So pleased for the brave survivors of abuse at Aberlour House, Gordonstoun's junior school. Long fight - I first wrote about these cases in 2015. The delaying tactics of school insurers
@rsagroup
caused added pain.
@Richard_Scorer
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He and his shipmates risked their lives to stop slavery because of shame at what Britain had done earlier. Boyle would have contempt for Jeremy Clarkson and anyone who tries to diminish or excuse the crime against which they fought. 13/14
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But the newspaper refused to even discuss a correction. Clarkson was entitled to his "opinion", and the economic point was 'arguable' - though multiple respected academics wrote to prove it was 'ridiculous'. 6/14
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A £186m counselling session for survivors of child sexual abuse? Or a painstaking investigation whose final recommendations will make children safer? (Or both?)
My piece, as a participant in
@InquiryCSA
, for the Daily Mail
@ScottishCAI
@mandatenow
#CSA
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At Ashdown House and Eton, Johnson's schools, sexual predators were tolerated, their assaults covered up. I know - I was there too.
As Starmer said, everyone of the 1000s of rapes I prosecuted was about power, not sex
By promoting sexual predators, Johnson is reinforcing the abuser & hurting the abused
That is the most shameful of things to do
#PMQs
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My slave-owning ancestor was friend and ally of Dundas. I’ve read the letters between them. That’s evidence. So is his sending British troops to conquer Haiti for the sugar-growers.
@SirGeoffPalmer
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Repeating it again and again will never make it true. But why won’t
@timesscotland
leave this old bone be?
@mikewadejourno
?
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Survivors who have contacted me have named more than 20 other staff members. Far from the only Scottish private school where 'child safety' was a farce - but the numbers
@edinburghacad
are amazing.
@mandatenow
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Great conversation about my book
#BloodLegacy
with
@Sathnam
Sanghera: here's the result. If you can get past paywall, have a look at the readers' comments. Some disturbing, not unsurprising views on race, history and British slavery from
@thetimes
readers...
Author and journalist
@axrenton
has written a powerful book exposing transatlantic slave traders – in his own family. He tells us about his compulsion to uncover his shocking heritage
#alexrenton
#slavery
#heritage
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In Dark Corners, episode 4 is on
@BBCRadio4
at 11am this morning. Thanks as ever to genius producer
@_caitlinasmith
and sound designer
@jonnicholls
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To finish. Some of my ancestors were involved in transatlantic slavery (
#BloodLegacy
). Another, David Boyle, fought as a young midshipman in the Royal Navy AGAINST the slave traders off Africa in 1850. 12/14
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No statement from British government?
Today, we recognize and honour people of African descent for their courage and their determination in the face of the transatlantic slave trade’s devastating effects on their individual freedoms, families, and cultures.
#EmancipationDay
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My family is mentioned in this - more on the organisations in UK and Caribbean we are supporting here ... If you've profits from slavery and slave trading in your family history - and lots of us do - why not join in?
By Paul Lashmar and Jonathan Smith
‘My forefathers did something horribly wrong’: British slave owners’ family to apologise and pay reparations
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Just now - Prof Alexis Jay, chair of child sexual abuse inquiry on the govt's proposed law 'A fudge, an opportunity missed... I am deeply disappointed [and] for the victims & survivors who had such high expectations that what the Inquiry recommended was going to be implemented.'
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More on
@MandateNow
's proposal for a workable mandatory reporting system to protect children and other vulnerable people in institutions - modelled on those that function well in other countries -
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Lovely London cabbie called Graham Payne had seen our film
#SecretShame
and wouldn’t let me pay my fare... so I’ve donated to the excellent
@NAPAC
. Who need our support.
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Short, vital and profoundly generous book from
@emmadabiri
. Stone-cold must read for people like me. Have you seen it
@SirGeoffPalmer
?
#changetheconsequences
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He claimed schools won't teach about the Royal Navy’s campaign against slave-traders after Britain abolished the trade (but not slavery) in 1807. Even though this "most morally just war of all time... cost far more than Britain earned from its earlier slaving enterprises". 3/14
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My piece on football abuse - We won't protect children until we ensure they are heard: support
@mandatenow
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Excellent, unarguable, inspiring - a road map for our nation from
@OlivetteOtele
. I wonder if any British politician would dare take it on.
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Women's experiences of boarding school and its after-effects are not told enough. This is brilliant - astute and beautifully written
I was sent to boarding school at 13 and it destroyed me.
These British institutions deprive kids of love, home, freedom, intimacy and childhood. This has to end
@nickduffell
@JoySchaverien
@psychoanalysis
@axrenton
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#BloodLegacy
is a "Book of the Year" - a great list here from
@newstatesman
, though not so many stocking fillers... Thanks
@DalrympleWill
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So proud of the fabulous daughter Lulu - she has won her school's service award for delivering many hundreds - 1000s? - of meals to vulnerable people and key workers across
#Edinburgh
with
@Cyrenians1968
#covidhero
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Welcome announcement, but we need to make sure that years of governmental dithering on this now results in strong, effective legislation (like other countries have). Follow
@mandatenow
for the best critique of the nitty-gritty of this.
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Good to see another serial offender behind bars. But why did the headteachers at these schools fail to stop him? Tillson abused children at three different ones, according to survivors I've heard from - passed from one elite establishment to another.
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Nice pile to be in.
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So pleased for the brave survivors of abuse at Aberlour House, Gordonstoun's junior school. Long fight - I first wrote about these cases in 2015. The delaying tactics of school insurers
@rsagroup
caused added pain.
@Richard_Scorer
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10
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@RestoreTrustNT
Neither this tweet or your website says what you do. Stifling debate, suppressing an honest telling of history and intimidating people you disagree with is the job, right?
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