New Tory Culture War on statues focuses on Guys Hospital. A story of historic & modern racism
It has been fairly quiet on the Tory Culture Wars (statue section) recently but with autumn and the party conference season beckoning Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and the Murdoch Times have decided it’s to time to re-start.
In this case the statues involved are those of Thomas Guy and Sir Robert Clayton both of whom were centrally involved in the development of Guys Hospital in London. Both men made money from the slave trade with Clayton rather more involved than Guy.
Last year Guys decided in principle that the statues should not be taken down but moved to less prominent positions. An consultation was then launched covering local Councils in the area, communities directly involved and others with a direct interest.
The report of this consultation has now appeared and concludes that there is no need to move Clayton’s statue as it isn’t in a prominent position but that of Guy should be moved. In both cases, as preferred by Dowden, the statues will have explanatory panels added.
Since both statues are listed and changes require planning permission under current rules the ultimate decision would rest with Dowden. Dowden has (of course) already intervened and said the statue of Guy should stay where it is. The Minister is not in favour of taking down or moving statues although he does support putting them up (not that any have been of course this is just culture wars rhetoric)
The Times (Editorial 4th September) has now weighed in and demanded Guy’s statue is left as is. It claims that the public consultation supported this. Up to a point Lord Copper (i.e its lying). It refers to an on-line questionnaire where around 600 responses from those with a direct interest were hoped for. In fact there were 3000. That was because the hard right Save Our Statues group whose main aim is keep statues of racists in place got involved. 66% of respondents wanted the statue of Guy to stay. However 63% of those who responded from Kings College (the directly involved) wanted it moved. In other words the result was skewed by racists who had nothing to do with Guys or the impact of the statue locally.
That is the reality of the Tory Culture War in the autumn of 2021.
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