Dear Editor,

Life never ceases to throw ironies at us. There is a picture on page 35 of F A Hoyos’s book Barbados Comes of Age of Sir Grantley Adams of Barbados, Vere Bird of Antigua, and other Caribbean politicians standing on a sidewalk in London some time in 1960 observing a demonstration by several English women. The ill-fated West Indies Federation was on its deathbed, gasping its last breath. The placards read: “We want more sugar: With your help British Colonies could supply it.”

It seems as though the British got even more sugar than they wanted. For, just last weekend, The Daily Mail newspaper revealed that they are eating far too much of it, which is making them “fat and ill”. Now, Public Health England, the agency in charge of the nation’s health, is recommending a sugar tax of up to 15 per cent on fizzy drinks and fattening snacks. It is one of eight recommendations designed to tackle the British love affair with “the sweet stuff” that is linked to obesity and diabetes.

My suggestion to Prime Minister David Cameron: Why not build a series of hospitals in the Caribbean, instead of a prison in Jamaica? Think of the possibilities for medical tourism. You could send out thousands of obese and diabetic Englishmen, women and children for rehabilitation. At the same time, you could help us set up research facilities for the disease that is killing your people and ours, the descendants of the Africans, on whose backs the British Empire prospered since the 17th century. That’s what I would call reparation.

Carl Moore

Barbados

carlmoore@caribsurf.com