‘Shambolic’ slavery report sparks fury from Cambridge dons - "A Cambridge University college has been accused of hiring a “woke activist” with an agenda to produce a “shambolic” slavery report it is now being forced to correct. Gonville and Caius college hired a junior researcher on a year-long fixed-term contract to investigate legacies of slavery and coerced labour. However, it has descended into a furious row after a 50-page draft sparked a backlash from senior historians who condemned the “indefensible” attempt to tarnish the college’s history, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement." Now, in a quarrel that insiders said has “got completely out of hand”, Nicholas Bell-Romero, the postdoctoral researcher who was leading the report, has quit, accusing dons of “censorship” after the college ordered a series of clarifications... Gonville and Caius is Cambridge’s fourth-oldest college, and one of multiple university authorities to launch slavery inquiries since George Floyd’s murder. The draft was circulated among college fellows in the spring, prompting one legal historian to send back what sources described as a 16-page “demolition job” identifying what they say are several major flaws with the research. Sources said one error included an individual being wrongly named as having slave links to the college – but their identity was confused with someone else. Incorrect monetary conversions between 18th century and modern-day currencies were also used, which produced “grossly inflated figures” around donations to the college, insiders said. And another section allegedly claimed that the English “kidnapped” several million African slaves, when in fact many were sold by local despots to English traders. One don, who wished not to be named, told The Telegraph that the blunders were “really typical of the situation we’re in where woke activists have got this big agenda and actually when it comes down to the details they make a complete mess of it – their attempts to rewrite history fall at the first hurdle”. The don added: “The assumption which lay behind the report was that it could be proven that the college kept silent on slavery, which it didn’t because it made donations to the Society of Abolition as the report showed on occasions. “So the whole tone of it was that we need to prove something – but that’s not how you conduct historical research.” The report is said to have suggested that the profits from slave plantations helped spark the industrial revolution, which academics argued was “blown out of all proportion”. Critics also pointed out that the college lived off agricultural land in Norfolk without accepting as many controversial investments as other Oxbridge colleges."
Welsh village called Nelson on list of ‘problematic’ places - "An entire Welsh village has been listed in a dossier of sites connected to the slave trade because it shares a name with naval hero Admiral Lord Nelson... The village of Nelson was added by Caerphilly Borough Council to an audit of suspect streets linked to slavery because its namesake, Trafalgar hero Horatio Nelson, “opposed abolition”. Known in Welsh as Ffos y Gerddinen, the small settlement took its English name from the local 19th century pub The Lord Nelson Inn, and this second-hand association has led to the village being cited as a “problematic” place. Documents from the Labour-led council use a traffic-light system of “culpability” for historic figures with places named after them, from red to green, with sites related to Lord Nelson listed in the amber category, which denotes ambiguous blame for the slave trade... The village, with a population of 4,600, was included on the list of sites linked to slavery, despite council documents noting that the village’s name is not an “intentional commemoration of Nelson”... Welsh Conservative Member of Senedd Natasha Asghar branded the dossier “absolutely absurd”, adding: “The village was named after its pub The Nelson, and not because of potential links to Lord Nelson. To slander an entire village in this way is outrageous. “Sadly, this is just another example of political correctness going too far, and it is high time we stop pandering to the woke left. I hope it has dawned on officers at Caerphilly Council just how ridiculous this really is, and that the village of Nelson should remain Nelson.”... A park named for wartime leader Winston Churchill has been included in the list, with an amber rating, and the dossier takes issue with Picton Street in Pontlottyn, named for Sir Thomas Picton, as the officer killed at Waterloo has been criticised for his colonial governorship of Trinidad. Documents note that former prime minister William Gladstone, whose reputation has been challenged because his father received compensation following abolition, also has a street named after him in the area. Simon Hart, the Secretary of State for Wales, said: “I imagine the residents of Nelson will have plenty to say. From what I’ve heard they are totally nonplussed that the Welsh government and Caerphilly Council are focusing on this rather than local jobs.”"
Ex-West Mercia PC jailed after racist posts mock George Floyd - "A former police constable who posted racist WhatsApp memes mocking the death of George Floyd has been jailed. James Watts, 31, shared the material in a group chat, which included former colleagues at a Warwickshire prison. Watts admitted 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network and was jailed for 20 weeks."
This iconoclasm is class warfare - "The working and upper classes are generally more patriotic than the middle class. They are more comfortable in their skins, less self-conscious. Orwell observed, ‘England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution.’ The middle-class left is ashamed of British history, suspicious of our flags and anthems. This cosmopolitan, xenophile, predominantly white managerial caste provides our politicians, civil servants, senior police officers, journalists, media pundits and teachers. It has not escaped anyone’s notice that many rioters in London and Bristol were middle-class white people. BLM in Britain barely exists. (When BLM protests took place in the UK a few years ago, it was a handful of white middle-class people protesting about airport runway expansion.) BLM in Britain overlaps with eco-activism and Antifa. As in the US, Antifa supporters in the UK are largely young, middle-class and white. Many activists join the Antifa movement while at university. It was entitled middle-class vandals who defiled the Cenotaph that commemorates British and Empire dead – comprising a wide array of ethnicities and political creeds. Among those dead are socialist servicemen who were not motivated by chauvinism, but compelled by duty to defend family and nation. Images of the Cenotaph being desecrated – passively watched by police – will not be forgotten. People know the protesters were middle-class anti-patriots who managed to accomplish so much because of the acquiescence of police chiefs, local councillors, mayors, cabinet ministers and the prime minister – all of whom are middle-class social liberals. Television news programmes and many newspapers downplayed the violence; the BBC portrayed riots targeting national symbols as ‘largely peaceful anti-racism protests’ (quickly altering that wording once it attracted criticism). British demonstrations are a clash of class values. By targeting symbols they nominate as racist, arrogant middle-class liberals assert they know how to fight racism; the working classes’ opposition to iconoclasm is therefore treated as evidence of their inherent racism. When, subsequently, groups came out ostensibly to prevent monuments from being attacked, they were condemned by the press and politicians (including Boris Johnson) as ‘racist thugs’. When ordinary people – angered by lawlessness, lockdown flouting and defilement of public property – believe (correctly or otherwise) that those individuals were putting their safety on the line to protect statues that the police had so singularly failed to defend, this generates solidarity with those ‘thugs’. What next? After all, if holding ordinary views (such as patriotism, respect for law, venerating the war dead) is ‘far right’, then why not vote for far-right Patriotic Alternative or Britain First? If being normal is far right, then far right is normal... the 1999 Macpherson Report... advanced the concept of ‘institutional racism’ – the idea that a whole organisation can be racist even though no perpetrators of outright racism can be identified. It established the Orwellian definition of racist incidents as ‘any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person’ – a dangerously subjective definition that has entered hate-speech legislation. Macpherson stated that ‘colour-blind’ policing was not legitimate and should be dropped in favour of colour-directed policing, thereby abandoning any attempt at neutrality. The new policing culture caused police to obsess about phantom prejudice among (working-class) officers who needed to be scrutinised by (middle-class) superiors; conversely, evidence of crimes committed by ethnic-minority perpetrators was actively suppressed. The Macpherson Report paved the way for decades of silence regarding the Muslim grooming-gang scandal... In former eras we had noblesse oblige – the practice of nobility looking after families working for them (partly due to patrician beneficence, partly due to undiluted self-interest). Lords, bishops and gentlemen met ordinary people and understood their concerns. Nowadays, British society is governed by a managerial elite that only encounters working people when they pass them in Waitrose stacking shelves. Today’s politicians, journalists and police commanders consider ordinary people’s sentiments backward and view their concerns about crime and migration as bigoted. If our system of technocratic governance exists without accountability or transparency – run by political parties populated by politicians of the same caste with nearly identical social outlooks – is it any wonder we are caught between poles of apathy and violence?"
Anglo Liberals have hated their countries at least since Orwell's time
Anti-woke headteacher urges peers not to ‘crumble’ before student activists - "Schools must not “crumble” in the face of student activism, a leading headteacher has warned as she criticises the rush to “decolonise” the curriculum in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. Victoria Bingham, head at the £20,000-a-year South Hampstead High School in north London, said she does not believe there was sufficient debate before education institutions implemented wide-reaching changes to syllabuses... Ms Bingham said there did not appear to be much “pedagogical discussion” about the changes adding: “It has just been taken as read that if that’s what student activists want, then that’s what we should do.”... Students need to be taught how to discuss and debate issues properly, and it does not set a good example if schools are “being led by whatever the big news story is”. “I suppose it sends a message that if you sign a petition and shout a bit you can get what you want,” Ms Bingham explained. “I’m not sure that is a great life message... Ms Bingham said that schools should not merely assume that “whatever the latest movement says is necessarily correct”. Another example of this, she explained, is calls to adopt more “gender-neutral” language and refer to girls as “pupils” or “students” to be more inclusive to transgender children. “I am unapologetic about us being a girls school,” she said. “Of course we want to be very supportive to anyone questioning their gender identity, but I am not going to pretend we are not a girls’ school and tell all my staff to stop calling them girls. We are a proud feminist school and I am unapologetic about it.” Ms Bingham said schools need to do more to prepare their students for the “cancel culture” that exists at universities and one of the best methods is teaching about the importance of discussion and debate. She added that schools should invite controversial speakers so that students are exposed to different points of view and learn how to disagree gracefully."
Greene King to rename pubs 'linked with racism' - "Greene King will rebrand four pubs with names “linked with racism” after revelations of historic links to slavery. Three pubs currently called The Black Boy, and one called Black’s Head, will be renamed due to their potentially offensive connotations... Although the company admits there is no consensus on the racial origins of the obscure pub names due to be removed, its consultation concluded that people found them offensive... While pub names are obscure, it has been theorised that “Black Boy” title found across the UK comes from a moniker given to Charles II by his mother Henrietta Maria of France due to his sable hair and dark complexion"
Grievance mongering is a self-fulfilling prophecy - people can be upset over anything
BLM has set anti-racism back decades - "a majority of people – 55 per cent – believe that BLM has actually increased racial tensions. This view is also shared by many ethnic-minority Brits (44 per cent). Labour voters are also notably more likely to agree than disagree with the view that BLM has heightened racial tensions in British society... there has been a lot to divide and antagonise coming from the BLM movement. We have been subjected to the sight of protesters chanting ‘don’t shoot’ at British police officers who are not usually armed; police officers being assaulted with impunity during ‘largely peaceful’ BLM demonstrations; a BLM activist attempting to burn a Union Flag at the Cenotaph; statues being torn down by BLM activists; and the defacing of a statue of Sir Winston Churchill, who led the British charge against Nazism in the Second World War. Moreover, the exclusionary nature of the BLM movement has intensified intra-black animosity in Britain, with black Britons who refuse to toe the BLM line labelled by identitarian fanatics as ‘coons’ and ‘Uncle Toms’, and accused of being ‘race traitors’ and ‘house negroes’... Make no mistake, the anti-racist movement in the UK is in crisis. It has been hijacked by radical political agitators, crank academics, race-baiting journalists, opportunistic woke capitalists and self-absorbed entertainers, who are happy to sacrifice social cohesion in the name of radical identity politics and personal gain. They are focused on making white British people feel forms of ‘collective guilt’ over slavery and colonialism, and vilifying non-white people who firmly reject the politics of victimhood. Indeed, the latter was perfectly demonstrated by the wave of hostility directed at Munira Mirza after she was appointed to set up the UK government’s commission on race and ethnic disparities. Pro-BLM activists called her a ‘racial gatekeeper’ and ‘brown executioner’... The anti-racism movement is increasingly taking its eye off the ball when it comes to bread-and-butter issues: tackling racial discrimination in the labour market; creating a more responsive NHS which meets a diversity of health needs; building ties between police forces and urban neighbourhoods; and boosting forms of political trust in traditionally disaffected minority groups. Instead, the anti-racism movement is being taken over by those who have pledged allegiance to a political campaign that aims to defund police forces and dismantle the UK’s market economy. It is a deliberately divisive campaign which crassly portrays Britain – which remains one of the most successful examples of a postwar multi-racial democracy – as some sort of hard-right authoritarian dictatorship. BLM is responsible for undermining the anti-racist cause. It has alienated those who are serious about racial equality but do not see their own country as a fundamentally evil entity. It has also been implicated in the growing normalisation of left-wing bigotry – something the Labour Party should be especially wary of given its troubles with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)"
Watch London Protest: ‘We Need to Burn This Sh*t... The West Is Falling!’ - "thousands of protesters were filmed gathering in Central London on Sunday, in open defiance of the national coronavirus restrictions. In stark contrast to the arrests of peaceful anti-lockdown protesters in Hyde Park the day before, the Metropolitan Police took no actions to stop the left-wing demonstration that lasted well into the evening and spanned several miles of the city."
Theatre in spotlight over demands that staff educate themselves on white privilege - "Theatre staff will be made to read about “white privelege” in a mandatory book club set up to educate them on racism. Staff at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester will take part in the “mandatory” club launched in response to Black Lives Matter protests, as the converted cotton exchange addresses its historical links to slavery. Members of the compulsory club will meet monthly to discuss tracts on racism, including White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, which argues that “white people raised in Western society are conditioned into a white supremacist worldview”."
We won’t allow Britain’s history to be cancelled - "I will not look on as people threaten to pull down statues or strip other parts of our rich historic environment. Confident nations face up to their history. They don’t airbrush it. Instead, they protect their heritage and use it to educate the public about the past. They “retain and explain,” rather than “remove or ignore”. They don’t do what Liverpool University did and remove William Gladstone’s name from an accommodation block because of his family’s links to slavery. Of all the figures who have fallen victim to the culture wars in the past year, this seems like a particularly egregious case. Gladstone, prime minister four times and a hero of liberalism, never owned slaves and though his views evolved, he called slavery the “foulest crime” in our history. But those details were apparently too nuanced for the campus activists. His father owned slaves, and therefore Gladstone himself needed to be expunged from the record. I don’t agree with that approach. Leading voices in our museums and heritage organisations don’t agree with it. And neither does the public. That includes the 84 per cent of black Britons who say they don’t want to see our heritage pulled down or hidden from view, according to a recent poll... museums and other bodies need to have genuine curatorial independence. But independence cuts both ways. Heritage organisations should be free from government meddling, but the people who run them also need the courage to stand up to the political fads and noisy movements of the moment. And as national institutions, heritage organisations should take into account the views of the entire nation: the people for whom they were set up, and whose taxes pay for them. That’s why I want to make sure the boards of these bodies are genuinely diverse and not solely governed by people from metropolitan bubbles. I want a grandparent in Hartlepool or Harwich to feel as represented by their decisions as a millennial in Islington. None of this means preserving our history in aspic. History is a dynamic, living subject, and it’s right that we reassess and reinterpret events as our understanding evolves. But any account of the past should start from a commitment to telling a balanced, nuanced and academically rigorous story – one that doesn’t automatically start from a position of guilt and shame or the denigration of this country’s past. One that acknowledges, for example, the evil of slavery, but acknowledges this isn’t a uniquely British crime, and that our nation led the world in eradicating it... I want to take not a Maoist but a “moreist approach” to our heritage: I want more statues erected; more chapters added to our national narrative and more understanding of it. In short, more history, not less. The point is to expand the conversation – not shut it down. The pressure on our heritage is part of a worrying trend – a cancel culture whereby a small but vocal group of people claim to have the monopoly on virtue, and seek to bully those who dare to disagree. But the world is too complicated for that kind of totalitarian moral certainty – and we must resist it at all costs."
First, they came for the Confederate Generals...
Red Wall voters to replace 'metropolitan bubbles' on heritage boards, pledges Oliver Dowden - "Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said on Saturday that he wants people from the North and the Midlands to join the management of top cultural organisations and give them “the courage to stand up against the political fads and noisy movements of the moment”... Mr Dowden has grown increasingly frustrated at the way that heritage bodies have allowed themselves to be bullied by campaigners into removing statues erected to honour figures from Britain’s imperial past, or censoring other contested parts of UK history... The news follows the resignation of Sir Charles Dunstone as chairman of the Royal Museums Greenwich, after he clashed with Mr Dowden who had refused to grant a second term to a trustee and academic whose work had supported “decolonising” the curriculum."
Museum bosses back anti-woke charter to guard against rushed and unplanned changes to UK heritage - "Bosses from three of the UK’s leading museums have backed a new anti-woke charter aimed at protecting Britain’s heritage from activists and “temporary shifts in public sentiment”. The guidelines, written by Trevor Phillips, the writer and broadcaster, for the Policy Exchange think tank, set out three principles that any institution should follow when facing calls for change. The chairs of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of the Home and the director of the Science Museum have all lent their support to the report, which argues against rushed and unplanned changes to public history and heritage... Senior figures are believed to be keen for institutions to have a formalised system for responding to pressure from activists, rather than the existing case-by-case approach... “The alteration of public history is taking place – whether through the removal of statues, the renaming of streets, the re-evaluation of school curricula or the removal of museum exhibits – without a rigorous and non-partisan approach having been taken”. Decision makers should be accountable to former and current donors... The three principles call for any decision-making body to be clearly identified, with their membership and powers set out publicly; for any changes to be lawful and consistent with the aims of the institution involved; and for decision-makers to be accountable to those who support the institution, including the taxpayer and existing and previous benefactors... The Policy Exchange report argues that change can only be justified if it will stand the test of time and should not “unduly be influenced by what may be temporary shifts in public sentiment”."
Oxford student accused of racism for singing along to ‘n-word’ rap track - "An Oxford University college has investigated a student for racism for singing along to a track by the American rapper Notorious B.I.G that contained the n-word. Christ Church censured the first-year student after a peer filed a racial harassment complaint over hearing the "extremely distressing" lyric... The case has provoked a backlash from minority ethnic students, who claim the college is a “hostile and uncomfortable environment for undergraduates with black heritage” and that racism is “normalised” at Christ Church, which has taught at least 13 British prime ministers... The row comes after Christ Church rolled out racial bias training in the summer when an undergraduate made a "deeply offensive" joke comparing the killing of George Floyd with flour shortages causing riots, during a virtual hustings... The n-word features regularly in rap song lyrics. Durham students were criticised in 2018 for singing it while performing a karaoke by Kanye West during a winter ball. Last September Lincoln University students’ union vowed to edit out all mentions of the n-word in songs when club nights returned."
Since it's racist, when will rap music be banned?
Apparently minorities are too fragile to hear one of the words that shall not be spelled out in full
Colston 4 found not guilty of criminal damage to slave trader's statue - "Four people who helped tear down slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol and dump it in the harbour have been found not guilty of criminal damage... barristers for the defendants argued that Colston’s statue was so “indecent” and “abusive” that the defendants’ actions were lawful and proportionate... The prosecutor suggested the defendants ignored democratic processes in favour of “taking matters into their own hands”. Seeking to refute this, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh said Graham, her client, and the other defendants’ actions were in line with a “long and honourable tradition” of direct action protests... She said that her client believed the people of Bristol did not want a statue of a slave trader venerated as a “virtuous and wise” philanthropist in their city, no more than they would want one of paedophile Jimmy Saville."
This is basically giving leftist mobs carte blanche to destroy whatever they want
Vanessa Redgrave: why our statues should stay - "Even old radicals like legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave – a former member of the Workers Revolutionary Party – think our statues should stay standing. In an interview with the Radio Times, Redgrave says we should have ‘more statues… not just [those] commemorating men who made money out of slavery’, but that those that are standing should stay: ‘We’ve got to keep taking on board the fact that we are a country that has done terrible, cruel things.’ In Redgrave’s eyes, statues are an important reminder of that past... Redgrave once turned down a damehood, because honours linked to the British Empire make her feel uncomfortable. Proper anti-imperialists like her recognise how hollow the vogue for toppling statues is"
If William Pitt falls, no figure in history is safe - "As our current bout of national self-flagellation continues unabated, the latest target is Great Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister, William Pitt. The “Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review group” has listed a statue of Pitt as one of its targets and asks residents “whether features known to be linked with slavery or colonialism should be considered for removal, or renaming”... Pitt had also spoken out against the evils of the slave trade. Addressing the House of Commons in 1792, he argued that slavery was a “curse of mankind” and that it should be seen “by the House in its true light” as “the greatest stigma on our national character which ever yet existed”. So why has Pitt now joined the topple list? The obvious answer is that the cultural revolution’s high priests are running out of targets. The best-known sinners are either already cancelled or now have “badges of shame” to contextualise their sins, such as Cecil Rhodes in Oxford. Like any cultural revolution, its central strategy is continued momentum. Thus more figures must be swept up in a purity spiral of iconoclasm... The effect is to render any study of history itself almost meaningless. After all, to understand the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, we must also acknowledge the British state’s role in abolishing it. As Peter Grindal documents in Opposing the Slavers, it took 60 years for the British finally to suppress the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Brazilian slave trade. Moreover, in nearly all states and civilisations in history (the African kingdoms, the Barbary states, and so on), slavery has been the norm, not the exception. Insofar as countries like Britain are exceptional, it is because they gave birth to the movements to end slavery. They are exceptional, too, in wanting to atone for it. Perhaps there are similar “Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review groups” in the capitals of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, the centres of the Barbary slave trade between the 16th and 18th centuries? The blinkered certainties of “woke” iconoclasm must be seen as part of a deeper cultural malaise. As the essayist Wesley Yang has argued, it is a “successor ideology” to liberalism in the anglophone West. Beginning in the ivory towers of universities’ social science and humanities departments, it has now escaped into broader consciousness. Rejecting the civil rights struggles of yesteryear, whose challenge to injustice was based on pluralism and the common humanity of us all, the leading proponents of this ideology state openly that they seek to deconstruct “the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality, theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law”. The result is that a new moral hierarchy has inscribed itself on British life. The nation itself must be repudiated, as well as its heroes, and the facts of British history must be subordinated to a predetermined moral script of sin and self-flagellation. Our new cultural masters, sitting on the boards of national institutions, are no longer the custodians of a precious past that links our present to an as yet unwritten future. Instead, they vent their anger on statues and other visible elements of British identity"
First, they came for the Confederate Generals...
The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again
We are still told that liberals don't hate their countries
Black police officers to be fast-tracked into senior roles - "She said increasing the proportion of women and ethnic minorities in senior ranks was a “critical and personal priority for me”."
Boris Johnson orders probe into ‘far-left hijacking’ of Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion - "A former Labour MP picked to carry out the review warned of “disruption or even violence carried out in the name of progressive causes”, as he started work. John Woodcock, a former aide to Gordon Brown and now an independent peer, stressed that far-right groups remained a significantly bigger threat to British life. But he said: "We must be vigilant against a similar blind spot in Britain to the prospect of progressive extremism... "I want to look at the way antidemocracy, anti-capitalist far left fringe groups in Britain like the Socialist Workers Party tend to have much more success hijacking important causes”"
Royal Opera House to review classic works as it makes overture to Black Lives Matter - "At present, the ROH does not require performers to share the ethnicity of the character they play, but the organisation has said in an “anti-racism pledge” that it will “further debate this approach with staff, artists and experts in the field”... Other policies outlined in its strategy include “a target of at least 30 roles per season being taken by ethnically diverse singers and at least three to four of these lead or title roles,” in a bid to improve diversity in opera and ballet."
