Days after Queen Elizabeth II passed away, CNN TV personality Christiane Amanpour urged King Charles III to distance himself from Britain’s “colonial past” and perhaps make amends to nations that the UK had conquered.
Amanpour was in London over the weekend delving into Charles III’s inaugural speech as king, and the topic of “different populations” listening to it for various purposes came up.
Charles III addressed the increasingly varied status of the U.K. in his first speech on television as king after succeeding the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“In the course of the last seventy years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. The institutions of the State have changed in turn,” he noted. “But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms – of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud – have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant.”
Reacting to the king’s remarks, Amanpour spoke of British colonialism;
“I really do believe that we have to have this conversation right now, even at this moment,”
“And look, what he said, ‘In the 70 years of her being on the throne, many cultures and faiths have flourished in these past seven decades,’” she paraphrased.
Amanpour appeared to suggest that this flourishing was overblown, “particularly in the wake of Black Lives Matter and particularly in the protests that erupted all over the world after what happened in Minnesota, in London, in France and other parts of these nations that had colonial servants, let’s face it.”
She recounted further that Britain, specifically, has a controversial imperial history, saying, “People were in service to this empire. The wealth of this empire was derived on the back of the people of their empire.”
“What we’re saying is that there is the generation of multicultural and diverse Britons who want this answered, who want to see their monarch finally talk about what it means and, you know, potentially the idea of reparations, definitely justice, right? Justice,” she said, warning that the citizenry of Britain has diversified and is looking to the King to address modern cultural issues with new policies.
She added that “Prince William who’s the heir and the next king, has talked about it, having been criticized for a trip he made in the Caribbean – again, colonial legacy – that we must have this discussion, and it must be up to those countries. But it also has to be had in this country [England] as well.”
