Polarising figures

Do statues lead to vital debate, or inflame dangerous passions? And who should they commemorate? Those are just some of the issues being debated on social media following the events of June’s Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol.

(@BorisJohnson), a great admirer of Winston Churchill –(@redhistorian) argued that “statues inhabit the present, not the past, and are subject to its jurisdiction. Our relationship with the past, and what we choose to honour, can change over time. It is not an offence against history to reflect those changes in what we commemorate in our public spaces.” (@BernardineEvari) went further. “People of colour, women, working classes and LGBTQI+ [people] have all been erased or marginalised in the timelines of official British history. Relocating and recontextualising toxic statues in museums is a necessary remaking of history.”