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Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (right) with Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, preparing to lead the procession marking the bicentenary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA
According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, it's not enough that nations and institutions formerly involved in the slave trade should apologise, they should also consider financial reparations.
This is something the Church of England is now considering, according to Dr Williams. But, as he pointed out this morning, who do you pay?
While many nations gained untold economic benefits from slavery, the list of victims is long and complex.
If you had a hypothetical fund of - to take an arbitrary example - £100m and you wanted to try and make up for some of the damage caused by slavery, how would you distribute it?
Payments to slaves' descendents? Money to the countries from where they were taken? A more general aid fund to try and redress some of the global economic imbalances with their roots in slavery?
Or, indeed, is it too complex to even start? Is an apology - whatever the controversy over the precise wording - sufficient?
