That brings me to ponder the present time. The Cabinet seems at times to be a cultural panel determined to rewrite history in its own political bias. Thus the felling of Colston’s statue became an affront to our history, and led to an attempt to develop panic amongst those who believe glorifying the past virtues and totally ignoring or demoting the bad things. Any criticism of the Empire is ‘woke’. Just as any implication that the establishment is racist and sexist is treated as anti-patriotic.
Why can we not be honest about the past, because until we are it will forever haunt us. Winston Churchill was a Great War leader and orator, very funny at times, and a complete and utter bastard as well. Unless we accept and question all aspects of his behaviour we cannot put the past behind us.
WW1 is still glorified rather than seen as a despicable episode in the history of Europe. Napoleon was a great leader and administrator, but also deeply faulted. Fransis Drake was a pirate paid by Queen Elizabeth ! who was also manipulative and had blood on her hands.
None of this is to decry some of the great things that these people and others did. But the debate needs to be had. Some old guy said that Colston’s statue demise was just the start and our steely homes would all be pulled down! I know he reads the Daily Mail but can speak coherently, if illogically, but why would he think this? People have complained to the National Trust about information boards describing how the commissioners of the buildings got their money. Presumably the boards are researched and as near actual as can be – what is the problem?
This is a surmise – my generation were the first to be brought up in an ever decreasing empire, Britain no longer ruled the waves. I found this exciting and still r4member the Geographical Magazine with a map of Africa with all the new names like Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, etc. however for many it seems the diminishment of the state is a personal affront? Hence the success of the Brexit campaign ‘to take back control’. For the regular individual in this country all that has happened is that nameless people in Westminster now make decisions (and with a whopping Tory majority) less scrutiny than would have happened in the EU. Most cannot tell you the difference between patriotism and nationalism.
Is intellectualism drilled out of our students to be replaced by rote learning not just of facts but how to write an exam answer? I am taken back to what is probably an urban myth ‘Is this a question” posed by an Oxbridge Uni – to be answered by ‘if that is a question, this is an answer’. But do we teach students to question?
I will not brand all Tories as intellectual light weights, though obviously many all sides of the House are, but I mostly take umbrage with those who manipulate history and its interpretation for their own political (and financial) gain.
Basically Colston, Rhodes, Robert Clive, etc. were mass murderers and today could be tried in The Hague. Now that would be a TV series worth watching?