New law will protect statues from ‘mobs and woke worthies’
STATUES and monuments are to be protected from “baying mobs” under new laws unveiled today by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Road names could also be saved from the “revisionist purge” of Labour councils under the changes.
The legislation would require planning permission for any changes and a minister would be given the final veto.
The move follows the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol last June and further demands to remove controversial monuments.
Four people were charged with criminal damage over the taking of the Colston memorial and six others accepted conditional cautions over their involvement.
The Communities Secretary says Britain should not try to edit or censor its past.
Any decision to remove heritage assets in England would require community consultation as well as planning permission.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph he said: “Our view will be set out in law, that such monuments are almost always best explained and contextualised, not taken and hidden away.”
Mr Jenrick said he had noticed an attempt to seek to erase part of the nation’s history.
He said this was “at the hand of the flash mob, or by the decree of a cultural committee of town hall militants and woke worthies”. He added: “We live in a country that believes in the rule of law. But when it comes to protecting our heritage, due process has been overridden. That can’t be right. “Local people should have the chance to be consulted whether a monument should stand or not. What has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob.”
The death of George Floyd while in the custody of police in Minneapolis sparked anti-racism protests across the world. During largely peaceful demonstrations in the UK, the Colston statue was dumped into Bristol Harbour and a London memorial to Sir Winston Churchill was vandalised with the words “was a racist”. In June, Boris Johnson said: “The statue of Winston Churchill is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny. “It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should be at risk of attack by violent protesters.”