A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how the Tory party should be proud of what we have achieved at some points in our past. The example I used was the intervention we made in Liverpool after the Toxteth riots 25 years ago.
But there are bigger interventions of which we should also be proud and should not be afraid to point to when challenged, as Tories often are, to give examples of how they have advanced the cause of human well being. One such example is the abolition of the slave trade two hundred years ago; a campaign led by a Tory, William Wilberforce.
Yesterday, in celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Act passed to outlaw the slave trade, the House of Commons debated the motion once again and William Hague MP, who is in the act of writing a biography of Wilberforce, spoke with a detailed knowledge of the topic that is often seen to be lacking in Parliamentary debates.
The enforcement of the Act by the Royal Navy around the World throughout the early nineteenth century provides another valuable example, this time of the notion that despite the damage done in Iraq, foreign intervention can be justified and when carried out correctly yields results of which entire countries can be proud.
These are not lessons that should be consigned solely to history books, where we know Tony Blair is unlikely to see them.
As David Davis MP, as shadow Home Secretary, and Damian Green MP, shadow Minister for Immigration, laid out in January, the problem of modern-day slavery and people trafficking remains and, sadly, appears to be worsening.
According to Conservative Party figures, between 700,000 and two million women and children are trafficked across international borders every year. There were an estimated 4,000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in the UK during 2003 at any one time. 60% of illegal immigrants resident in the UK arrived in the UK illegally, the majority in the back of a lorry, in conditions reminiscent of the slave ships Wilberforce condemned to the past.
But this Government has shamefully failed to act with the convictions that Wilberforce embodied. There were only 30 convictions for trafficking offences in 2004 to 2006. To date no convictions have been achieved for trafficking for labour exploitation.
The Conservative Party has outlined a number of proposals to tackle the problem. First among these is to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings 2005, which Blair has so far failed to do without explanation.
The campaign to end present day slavery is now being led by the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission who had an excellent stand at the Spring Conference last weekend which attracted many signatures of support, including George Osbourne MP, William Hague MP and mine (surely the one that will swing it!).
This is a campaign that every reforming and progressive Tory should support. Their petition is not yet on-line but you can register for more information.
Sign up on their site now.