ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Rowan Williams says the Church of England should consider re-paying the money it was given in compensation for having its slaves taken away. Two hundred years ago.

If he ever does that it will be the last time the C of E gets any money out of me.

Because I am sick to death of this obsession with the slave trade.

I am sick of seeing campaigners plodding from Hull to London with yokes round their necks on the So Sorry' march, while real people are still dying of malnutrition and Aids in Africa today.

I am bored with seeing footage of so-called African Americans bawling their eyes out at the former slave market in Ghana, never acknowledging the irony that it was their former (black) ancestors who cheerfully abetted the slavers in their evil trade.

Also not realising that while they wept their tears, within 1,000 miles in most directions real people were suffering with the kind of health and poverty issues that their money and support could vanquish in a trice.

More than anything, however, I am sick of hearing about how we should all feel guilty about the slave trade.

I'm sorry, but I don't. I'm sorry it happened, but I wasn't there.

My parents weren't there. No one in my family was there.

While some people 200 years ago were enslaving Africans, over in Eastern Europe large numbers of my family and my husband's family were being wiped out for being Jewish.

We could go over there, start blaming the locals and burst into tears in a field.

Or we could decide to get over it because it was a long time ago.

In the bad old days, slavery was a physical state which no one forced into had any choice over.

Now it would appear it's more an attitude of mind, a victim mentality which far too many folk are keen to sign up to.

All those who have expended time, energy and cash gnashing their teeth over something which happened two centuries back are becoming an embarrassment.

And they should remember this - if William Wilberforce had made like them, prattling and posturing and living 200 years in the past, slavery would probably have gone on a lot longer than it did.

The So Sorry' shower should dry their eyes, and relish their freedom and the opportunity it gives them to make this world a better place for all those who desperately need our help now.

PS Commentators have been lamenting the fact that slavery protester Toyin Agbetu managed to spend so long ranting in front of the Queen at the Abolition memorial service on Wednesday.

The way things are, no doubt Her Maj simply assumed it was an official part of the proceedings.