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[halfcenturyup]

The Ship Canal not Slave Ships

In heraldic terms, the ship represents international trade. It's just a ship for Christ's sake.

Something sinister about this article. Dexter told me.

 

[Gordyola]

I assumed the ship related to the canal, and asthetically looked better than a diesel coaster pumping fumes into the air and bilge into the canal?

The ship comes from the Manchester Coat of Arms and symbolises the City as trading entity with the world just like the Bees symbolise the City as an industrial entity and the hard working people

Manchester at the forefront of the abolition of slavery hence the gift of the statue of Abraham Lincoln from the USA people which stands proudly in Lincoln Square Manchester

Lincoln wrote a letter on 19 January 1863 to thank the people of Manchester for their support
But Manchester’s roots in the fight against human rights abuses, and slavery in particular, predates even Lincoln’s birth.

In 1787, leading British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson gave a speech at what is now Manchester Cathedral.

After being met with hostility in Liverpool, Clarkson was given a much warmer welcome in Manchester and the city positioned itself at the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement here in the UK.

Why Manchester has an Abraham Lincoln statue and square

How the City of Manchester helped American president Abraham Lincoln abolish slavery

ilovemanchester.com

Symbols of Manchester - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mexico1970]

Has the ship officially been named yet? Are all British ships bad? Hasn't this busybody not got better things to do with his time?

 

[dublinblue12]

Ffs

 

[Northerndave]

Typical Guardian hand-wringing.... They have bent over backwards after it turned out some of their founders were slavers.

Fucking woke piece of wank that article.

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

Think the ship is a symbol of Trade and the fact Manchester is so far inland there is pride on that alone.

 

[halfcenturyup]

We’ll have to simply disagree on your (or my) premise, as any real response would take this well outside the confines of this thread and football-related forum.

I will say, though, that my post (and my stance) is based on what was actually done and the real, continuing consequences of it, not an impossible analysis of whether what was done was “better or worse” than some unknowable alternative history. And, of course, to avoid glorifying atrocities and ongoing exploitation as part of some delusional notion of “civilising the world”, which seems to be the main fallback argument for those that wish not to confront our history.

I suppose we could consider if what the British did in building their empire was any better or worse than, say, the Spanish at the same time, to put the developments into a context.

Anyway, personally I don't feel any guilt about what happened in building the British Empire, any more than I feel hostility to Scandinavians, whose ancestors raped and pillaged in their conquest of Northern England. It's all just history to me.

 

[mexico1970]

Think the ship is a symbol of Trade and the fact Manchester is so far inland there is pride on that alone.

Yup, island nation has a ship shocker.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

FUCK OFF!

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

We’ll have to simply disagree on your (or my) premise, as any real response would take this well outside the confines of this thread and football-related forum.

I will say, though, that my post (and my stance) is based on what was actually done and the real, continuing consequences of it, not an impossible analysis of whether what was done was “better or worse” than some unknowable alternative history. And, of course, to avoid glorifying atrocities and ongoing exploitation as part of some delusional notion of “civilising the world”, which seems to be the main fallback argument for those that wish not to confront our history.

That last bit, that you added on, is a bit accusatory, attacking the person not the opinion. Life is a maelstrom of good and evil, always has been and always will be, so intensely scrutinising one side without factoring in the other is wrong, the two sides come as a pair and actions taken were and are related to each other.

My point is what do you want to achieve by saying everything the empire did was bad? Do you expect the British (whoever they are because I'm not sure I qualify for this being of Irish descent from after the time of slavery) to continually mourn and destroy anything they have loosely connected to that period? Or will a 2 minute silence do?