The Tory Culture War on statues & Guys Hospital. Not kicking over the statues
Over a year ago the then Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and the Murdoch Times started a statue Culture War involving Guys Hospital in London
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.
In 2020 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 appeared and concluded 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 was preferred by Dowden, the statues would have explanatory panels added.
The Times (Editorial 4th September 2021) weighed in and demanded Guy’s statue is left as is. It claimed that the public consultation supported this. Up to a point Lord Copper (i.e it lyed). It referred 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.
At length the Times has now reported (14th November 2022) that both statues are to remain in place but have explanatory panels added detailing the men’s role in the slave trade. Once local authority planning permission for conservation work has been agreed the panels will be installed in 2023.
Better than nothing might be a reasonable description…
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