Time we stopped apologising for past
REF the article today regarding the National Trust ( WMN 23rd Sept), which was also paralleled by a more scathing article in a national paper – what has happened to this once revered organization that now appears to have succumbed to the world of political correctness?
Quite apart from losing members by trying to force its volunteers to wear ‘Gay Pride’ badges and removing the word ‘Easter’ from its annual Easter egg hunt, it apparently is now compiling a list of its buildings whose original owners may have had something to do with either the slave trade, colonialism, or the building of the British Empire – events that occurred several hundred years ago!
Do they really think that the average person that goes to a country mansion considers for one moment who the original owner was? Unless it is someone of national fame, like Sir Francis Drake, it is doubtful if most visitors have ever heard of many of them outside a local area.
Visitors go to such places to view the magnificent buildings, its contents and gardens, maybe have a cup of tea, buy a souvenir and enjoy a nice day out. What they do not want is to be regaled with horror stories of slavery or hear the former British Empire trashed by the ‘Woke’ brigade because it is now seen as the ‘in’ thing to denigrate our history in the name of political correctness by those at the head of the organization.
It really is time we stopped apologising for our past. One does not see the Egyptians apologising for the use of slaves when building the pyramids, or the people of Rome going down on their knees over the building of the Colosseum and far more bloody events that happened in it. For that matter, neither do we see those European countries that had empires or any other countries around the world that dealt in the slave trade continuously apologising for their past. What happened hundreds of years ago happened and nothing can change it, either today or in another hundred years’ time, all we can do is acknowledge that slavery was not a good part in our history and move on.
Paul Mercer Tavistock, Devon