England’s slaves

eGG-THroWer patrick Thelwell is

right about england having become rich from the blood of slavery, but not in the way he thinks.

The slaves used in the Industrial revolution were our own working classes, millions of whom died from the effects of grinding poverty.

Children worked 16-hour days in mills from the age of nine, in appalling conditions and with no health and safety. Savage punishment for minor crimes could mean transportation to penal colonies. Men died on the battlefield when ordered.

england did not rise rich from the sea. We earned our position in the world through centuries of graft.

J. ROBERTS, Church Crookham, Hants.