Culture Minister Oliver Dowden claims he is not a Maoist
Culture Minister Oliver Dowden has been opining again on his favourite subject-culture wars. He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph (16.5) that he was not a Maoist but a Moreist.
By this he means (he claims) that he is in favour of more statues not less and more history. Dowden’s statements are invariably amusing. There seem to have been very few (if any)statues erected on his watch any more than, despite his insistence, there is any great move to take statues down. Further the ‘more history’ Dowden wants most definitely does not include anymore detail about British imperial activities.
Dowden also notes that he believes that museums and cultural institutions should be free of Government meddling and to make sure he has set up a committee to, er, well meddle. Its primary purpose is to promote Dowden’s Moreist perspective.
I don’t think Dowden understands what Maoism is or was. The Cultural Revolution led by Mao led to the purging and indeed deaths of numbers.
Dowden doesn’t do death fortunately but he has already been purging the wrong kind of person from Trustee Boards. Indeed so blatant has he been that Charles Dunstone, who is believed to be not unfavourable to the Tory Party, resigned as Chair of the Royal Museums, Greenwich in protest.
The irony is that much of society is beyond Dowden’s reach and this is where his cultural revolution fails. Private institutions, large companies and churches have continued to pursue an anti-racist agenda based on Black Lives Matter including removing where appropriate symbols of slavery.
There isn’t a thing Dowden can do about it which is of no comfort to those in areas where he continues to meddle.
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