McWilberforce Anti-Slavery Act passes in Scottish Parliament!

[Munro]

SCOTTISH HERALD, 1575AD

Scottish Parliament today passed new legislation banning the international trade in human slaves.  The bill, known as the McWilberforce Anti-Slavery Act, was spearheaded by William McWilberforce, a prominent anti-slaver from the borders region of Dundee, near the Babylonian border.  The kingdom of Babylon is the only nation on the continent where state-sponsored slavery is still in use today, and McWilberforce's energetic sponsorship of the bill is said to derive from several trips he made there in recent years during which he witnessed the horrors of slavery first hand.  He was particularly disturbed by the conditions in which slaves are sometimes transported overseas to wealthy landowners in the Founders empire and other overseas nations, which he described as "appalling" and a "disgrace for all of humanity".

The act also includes a controversial clause requiring the Scottish military to intervene directly to disrupt the international trade in human slaves, if 'reasonable diplomatic efforts have failed'.  This appears to be a reflection of growing public consensus that - since the horrors of the international slave trade were brought into the spotlight by McWilberforce and other prominent anti-slave campaigners within Scotland - it morally wrong not to act to stop this barbaric practice, when it is within Scotland's power to do so.

The legislation is an embarrassment to Prime Minister Munro, who opposed the legislation in parliament as 'vague' and 'unconstitutional'.  Nonetheless, the leglislation is already being challenged in court, with several right-wing groups filing suit against the government seeking to force them to take direct military action.  However, the case is likely to take several months, and the eventually outcome is already expected to be subject to appeal, so a final decision seems some time away. 

Nonetheless, Prime Minister Munro's government is expected to step up diplomatic and economic efforts to address the international slave trade in an attempt to pre-empt the legal arguments for war before their hands are forced by any potentially damaging ruling from the courts.

Needless to say, diplomatic relations with Babylon are said to be 'strained'.