So, Tony has apologised for Britain's role in slavery. Fantastic. 
Quite why, I'm not sure. There's a lot of things Tony Blair has done wrong, but slavery isn't actually one of them, funnily enough.
The idea that people from today should apologise to other people from today for actions performed by people hundreds of years ago is pure superstition. You should be accountable only for your own misdeeds. In fact, it's complete phoniness that a politician can show 'sorrow' for something he's not responsible for, but take no responsibility at all for the things he is responsible for - like the short-sighted mission in Iraq.
The very idea also gives way too much credit to the nation state. The people who were engaged in the slave trade didn't do it for Britain - they did it for money. They were individuals like you and me. Tony Blair can't seek forgiveness on your behalf or mine.
It's the height of arrogance that Tony Blair thinks he can, with a few words, wipe away the evil that was slavery.
The British government should apologise for the slave trade when the German government apologises for the Nazis, the Italians apologise for the Roman Empire and the Israelis apologise for all those barbaric commandments from God in the Old Testament. Yes, all of these things are barbaric. But none of them have anything to do with the current governments or citizens of a country.
