Aug 10, 2015

Britain's Landed Elite, Backed by Money Earned Through Slavery, Are Using Migrants as Scapegoats

By Andrew Butler / filmsforaction.org
Britain's Landed Elite, Backed by Money Earned Through Slavery, Are Using Migrants as Scapegoats

This is Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, a Conservative Member of Parliament for South Dorset. He lives in Charborough House (pictured above) on his the family’s 7,000 acre estate, surrounded by one of the longest walls in England, featuring massive arched gateways, one topped with a lion and one with a stag.

Richard Drax is firmly part of England’s landed gentry and ruling elite. Much of his wealth can be traced back to sugar plantations in Barbados, established by his ancestor James Drax, who was integral to establishing both the sugar and slave industries in the Caribbean. Records compiled by University College London show that in 1836, after the abolition of slavery and as part of a massive government compensation package, the Drax family were paid £4,293 (the equivalent of around £3million today) in compensation for the loss of their “property” - the 189 slaves owned by the family and made to work on their sugar plantation. Despite calls for reparations, slaves and their decendents have never recieved compensation.

Ancient history, you might say. Yet Richard Drax owes his privileged position to generations of exploitation and the appropriation of lives and resources by his family. So how does he use his privilege? In a county where a handful of families own and control tens of thousands of acres of land, in a region where up to a quarter of houses are second homes, in a country with more than 600,000 empty homes; Richard Drax uses his position to take aim at immigrants by saying “this country is full”.

He wants to restrict those allowed into the UK to those “with money in a bank account” because, at the end of the day, to people like Drax your value as a human being is only equal to your net worth.

Drax is not unique. Much of Britain's elite ruling class made their wealth on the backs of others, others who they now blame for Britain’s problems. Aided and abetted by their friends in the media, they point the finger of blame toward Calais and the mediterranean, and while people are distracted they continue to siphon wealth and resources from the rest of us.


Further reading: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Refugees Right Now

Economics   Politics   Social Issues
Rate this article 
Related
Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners
118 min · Documentary looking at the abolition of slavery in Britain and the extraordinary choice by the government of the day to compensate slave owners for their loss of 'property'.
Politics
Trending Videos
Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
62 min - Fourteen years after his first visit and 2011 film The Ultra Zionists, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the West Bank.Louis...
Humans of New York: The Series
37 min - From the photo blog phenomenon comes Humans of New York: The Series. Creator Brandon Stanton worked with cinematographer Michael Crommettover four years to create the series. Taken from 1200...
Earthlings (2005)
95 min - EARTHLINGS is a feature-length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete...
Tide TURNS On Israel As Rightwing Newspaper And Conservatives DENOUNCE West's Shame
14 min - Support us as we expand our challenge to our broken media here: https://www.patreon.com/owenjones84
Chris Hedges: Trumpland
16 min - The corporate coup d'tat and collapse of American democracy began long before Trump. He is simply snuffing out what remains. Support my independent journalism at Substack...
Yes, This is Project 2025 (ft. Liz Dye)
31 min - Trump denounced Project 2025, then did a Project 2025
Water is Love (2024)
61 min - Water is Love reveals the power of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities, villages, and regions. We touch upon traditional ecological knowledge, how water makes...
Trending Articles
Documentaries from the Early Days of Films For Action
Documentaries from the legendary Media Education Foundation
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to double your impact? You can subscribe for $10/mo or more as an extra show of support.