Cultural vandals

What was the difference between the Isis jihadis who torched the library at Mosul or flattened the Temple of Baal in Palmyra and the mob who vandalised Churchill’s statue or spray-painted the Cenotaph? They were all indulging in cultural vandalism.

Now we have London mayor Sadiq Khan taking his usual line of least resistance and talking of reviewing landmarks according to new rules of historical revisionism.the defacing of monuments, dedicated to those who fought to protect our freedoms, highlights the ignorance of the protesters.

Predictably there is talk now of removing Admiral Horatio Nelson from his plinth in Trafalgar Square.yet historians have long known that onethird of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 were black sailors. They came from the West Indies or West Africa. Some were US slaves. All were freed on joining up.

There is a prominent black slave in the famous “Death Of Nelson” painting by Maclise in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. On the plinth on the south side of Nelson’s column the artist Carew has black faces, yet these were the days before notions of political correctness or ethic balance, just a desire for historical accuracy. Their inclusion was unremarkable. Mention of black

sailors appears in letters, diaries, newspapers of the period. Photos from the 1850s depict retired black sailors with their Trafalgar medals.

Here in Scotland incidents of racial crime are at the lowest ever recorded and 40 per cent less than in 2013, without being complacent. It is as ludicrous to suggest all whites are racist or police are all scum as to suspect the black person in an expensive car or to regard a woman in a burqa as an Isis sympathiser.

That does not matter to the social warriors who have taken to the streets. In the new world of social media cultural intolerance is fuelled by extreme political correctness and ‘woke’ revisionism and it is brave to oppose it.

Yet our statues must remain, just like Auschwitz, as one cannot whitewash our history. They ensure we never lose sight of what was done to the victims.

Keith Place, Inverkeithing, Fife

suitable collateral. What price the NHS now?

And there’s no point in approaching Europe. Some European member states have suffered almost as much as we have from the effects of the virus and, regrettably, we are not currently on the best of terms with our European

neighbours anyway – so don’t expect much sympathy or cooperation there.

Rishi Sunak has stated the the best way to restore our public finances to a more sustainable footing is to safely reopen our economy so people can return to work. It’s hard to argue with this point

of view. Tax receipts from national insurance, income tax and VAT have all shrunk during the lockdown so the only option available to the Chancellor is to make good the shortfall by expansion.

Ironically, it looks like a return to the usual Tory policy of boom and bust, but this time in the reverse order of bust and boom – nicely timed to coincide with the next General Election.

Craigmount Park, Edinburgh