'I Feel the Weight of That History'

The abolition of the slave trade was achieved through the workings of the democratic system. But today few “ordinary people” have faith in democracy or in their governments’ willingness to listen.
I don’t think that’s true. You only need to look at what happened with the “Make Poverty History” campaign, with the cancellation of third-world debt, or at what’s happening with climate change. Look at the United States and the way people are mobilizing around Iraq. I believe people are politically engaged, just in a much more specific way than in the past. It’s true there’s a lack of faith in formal politics, and we need to do something about that, but it’s not everywhere. When I go to the Caribbean or Ghana, where you have democracies that are younger, the attitudes are so different. Or in South Africa, where people had to really fight for the right to vote. These people are so glad that their society is more open, that they can be critical of government, that they can read opposing views in the papers. They talk about these issues, and not in the cynical way you find in the developed world.

I see in your office you have a picture of Lord Nelson, the British admiral who died at the battle of Trafalgar. Why?
Well there’s a huge mural in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords, showing the death of Nelson on his ship. We had an event in the gallery last year, and I stood in front of the mural and, of course, on Nelson’s ship there would have been slaves. And I just stood there thinking, how would the slaves on British ships have felt if they’d known that a couple of hundred years later a black woman would be leader of the House of Lords in Britain. Another picture I have on the wall is [Queen] Elizabeth I. I like to have her there because she’s a strong woman.

© 2007