Note to Boris Johnson: It’s not about statues but here are some that should be put up
Writing in the Telegraph I note that Johnson says he will resist calls to remove a statue of Winston Churchill in Whitehall. Who is making this call? No one. It is not a demand of Black Lives Matter or anyone else. These are not the words of a Prime Minister but prime quality BS from a Tory politician who just isn’t up to the job of running the country and prefers instead a permanent campaign.
There is rightly some focus on re-situating some statues of prominent slave traders and imperialists away from very public positions. There is no demand to take down any war memorial, not even that of Bomber Harris in Aldwych which is probably amongst the most contentious.
Black Lives Matters is not about taking down or putting up statues but since the issue has been raised I list below a handful that seem long overdue. I’m sure there are others. The link is to a Stephen Bush piece in the New Statesman where he rightly suggests that putting up statues is something that might be usefully reviewed and draws attention to a plan by the London Mayor to do just that.
The previous London Mayor had nothing at all to say on the matter. His name? Johnson
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/06/what-sadiq-khan-gets-right-and-wrong-about-statues
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) socialist suffragette
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women
William Cuffay (1788-1870) Black Chartist leader in London
Jayaben Desai (1933-2010) Led Grunwick strike of Asian women, for equal pay, against racism
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