Monday 8 June 2020

Brexit Britain's Cultural Revolution Gets the Go-Ahead from Historic England.



Historic England collapses in a quivering apologetic heap. What kind of a conservation group is this? What kind of "history" will Britain rewrite for itself?
[statement on] The Removal of the Statue of Edward Colston, Bristol
Edward Colston's statue in Bristol has long been the focus of debate due to his involvement in the slave trade and we have been engaged in local conversations about how it could be re-interpreted to tell the full story. We recognise that the statue was a symbol of injustice and a source of great pain for many people. Whilst we do not condone the unauthorised removal of a listed structure, we recognise and understand the emotion and the hurt that public historical commemoration can generate and we encourage Bristol City Council to engage in a city wide conversation about the future of the statue. We are here to offer guidance and support but believe the decision is best made at a local level - we do not believe it must be reinstated.
Presumably therefore they will be behind the removal of every monument in the country that certain groups will claim are "a symbol of injustice and a source of great pain for many people". There's the legacy of five hundred years of British Colonialism to be dealt with. Sledge-hammers out, Historic England gives you the green light. Brexit Britain surely deserves its own "Cultural Revolution".

Like any government that comes to power on a tide of nationalist fervour, the UK will perhaps now feel free to unite under a more comfortable national mythology, where the Brits were all the good guys and any traces that anything bad happened to anyone in the past because of British greed will be expunged with Historic England's complicance. Hurrah !





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