Early start with the Freedom Breakfast – organised by Pastor Nims Obunge of the Peace Alliance. These are uplifiting occasions when Nims forces us (the Haringey community) to raise our eyes above our daily grind and brings out our better selves as we wrestle with really trying to make the world a better place. This year the ‘breakfast’ is focused on celebrating the abolition of slavery 200 years ago. A variety of speakers take the podium and each table also is posed three questions to discuss and then feedback to an invited panel – politicians, police chief, a representative from Amnesty and myself.
My speech (read in full here) was really focused on the continuation of slavery in modern terms – i.e. human trafficking, which is increasing and endemic and is alive and sick in Haringey as elsewhere. In fact the police busted a big trafficking gang locally who were charging people between £3,000 and £5,000 to come here and were then sold into mainly prostitution.
So whilst we have come a long way since the slave trade per se – but clearly still have a long way to go.
Lynne Featherstone 
LynneHuman trafficking is a serious issue and has to be tackled very aggressively. But when you say that we have come a long way since the slave trade per se you seem to be equating the transatlantic slave trade with modern trafficking. I think this understates the transatlantic slave trade. The slave trade involved the murder of millions, the formation of racist ideas that still infect our society, the transformation of the demography of the Caribbean and Africa – it was one of the greatest racist crimes in history. As our local MP it would be great if you were to publicly endorse the mayor’s call for an apology and to back his apology on behalf of London.Cheers