Truth before reconciliation: Nick Little on the responsibilities of history

‘Complicity matters.’

by Nick Little 16th October 2026

A recent exchange in the letters pages of the Friend began with a question about reparations. A Friend argued that a genuine apology must come from the person who committed a wrong to the person who was wronged. ‘History is history,’ he wrote, ‘and can’t be changed and should always be judged in its own time and not have today’s standards imposed on it.’ Rather than apologising for the past, he suggested, we should address the injustices of our own time.