Spotlight on capital’s statues

Sir, – The debate over the removal of statues and monuments rumbles on, with their destruction sought by those who see their views and activities as being abhorrent by today’s standards.

It all begs the obvious question as to where we draw the line.

The magnificent statue of David Hume, the Enlightenment philosopher is located on the Royal Mile.

However, as Hume famously noted: “There

never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation.”

On the Mound stands a statue to The Black Watch and its role in the Boer War, a war which saw the brutal incarceration of tens of thousands of men, women and children in the precursor of the modern concentration camp. Within the quadrangle of New College stands the statue of John Knox who famously attacked the “monstrous regiment of women”, arguing that female dominion over men was against God and nature.

In Princes Street Gardens stands the

statue of explorer David Livingstone, viewed in some quarters as the “patron saint” of imperialism in Africa.

Turn an eye to the Calton Hill and one can see the Nelson Monument, constructed in honour of Lord Nelson, a man who supported the slave trade and virulently opposed abolition.

We can, of course, pull all these down, leaving pretty little left, but it would leave our cities with little clue as to their past.

Indeed, the monuments we may want to replace them with will likewise face the same fate in the future. Alex Orr.

Flat 3, 2 Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.