Apologitis
John Sydenham
We have witnessed Keir Starmer apologising to American girls who were abused by Epstein. We have now heard Starmer apologising for ‘forced’ adoptions. If Starmer is responsible for these things he should be arrested.
Of course, Starmer did not do these things personally and knows he is only apologising to pose as holy.
Starmer’s apologies seem harmless but by suggesting that the British State is responsible for actions that were morally acceptable in the past he exposes us all to paying hard cash for imagined wrongs.
Activists are already pointing out that the Australian taxpayers have paid compensation to people considered to be victims of actual forced adoptions in Australia.
If the acceptance of responsibility by the State for historical ‘harms’ leads to financial payouts by the current taxpayer then Prime Ministers and other spokespeople for the State should be extremely careful about their apologies. The State should also be very careful about the effects of historical practice on current legislation. Legislation that awards compensation of any type will need to be assessed for possible claims over the past two thousand years of British history. The bill for poorly worded legislation could be enormous. According to the logic of compensating people for historical events, claims should be awarded as index linked payments to people whose ancestors died in wars, industrial accidents etc.
I might have admired Starmer if he had followed his apology with a statute that limited the liability of the current British state to 25 years. This would also put a stop to vexatious claims about slavery.
I would have admired Starmer if he had explained why coercion occurred instead of apologising.
The only people who can give meaningful apologies to the women in Britain who were coerced into giving up their babies for adoption are the girl’s parents. Most of the girls were children and it was their parents who signed away the baby. I can understand the parents: if their 15 year old daughter had a baby and refused to have it adopted they would be forced into another 18 years of parenthood. Parents went along with the agencies in supporting coerced adoption to escape from being cornered by their wayward daughter into a prolonged life of hard work and parental responsibility.
The coercion and forced adoptions worked to keep down the rate of teenage pregnancies. Girls are especially affected by the criminalisation of events around pregnancy as can be seen from the ending of forced adoption in Australia in the late 1970s:
Percent of Children Born out of Wedlock in Australia. Sources: ABS, Births Australia (various years); Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (1964, 1973).
Whatever you may think about forced adoption, effective decriminalisation led to a 500% rise in births outside marriage. Decriminalisation has a serious effect on women’s approach to pregnancy.
Modern teenagers avoid the issue because the morning after pill and abortions have solved their dilemma of what to do with the baby.
(Source: UK Government)
In 2021 there were 276 abortions of babies over 24 weeks that were known to government agencies. Most of these abortions were for legal and acceptable reasons, many of the illegal abortions would have been registered as stillbirths. The true figure for late abortions is unknown (this was a crime until June 2025). Expect the figure to rise as late abortion becomes legal. See:
Will a future PM apologise for our current behaviour?
The State has taken over the role of providing a cuckoo’s nest. Single parent families are now a major burden on the welfare system. Who pays now? Not the grandparents, it is you and me. See Who gets benefits in the UK?.