BBC historian hits out at Churchill

WINSTON Churchill was involved in activities which could today be considered war crimes, a BBC historian has said.

David Olusoga, who co-presents the new Civilisations series, said that while he accepted Churchill was a hero in Britain, ‘almost all historical figures did good and bad’.

He also said those who criticise historical statues should not be dismissed as ‘snowflakes’ because they have ‘ legitimate voices’.

We are entering a period of ‘history wars’ in which accepted versions of Britain’s past are being challenged, Mr Olusoga told the Oxfordshire Literary Festival.

‘So while I’m personally glad that Churchill overcame Halifax in early 1940 and it was Churchill who faced the Nazis that year and the years that followed, that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t somebody that wasn’t respon- sible, or largely responsible, for the Bengal famine [of 1943-44]. It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t someone who took part in things we would consider war crimes in Africa. It doesn’t mean that his views, the things he espoused, were shocking to members of his Cabinet, never mind to people at the time. Both of those things are true. Both of those Churchills exist. We’re going to have to accommodate the fact that these things are true, and there are two sides to these stories and we’re not good at it.’

He said that people are brought up with a ‘certain version’ of British history so that some subjects become ‘sacrosanct’.

Mr Olusoga, whose father is Nigerian, went on to discuss the British Empire, and said countries such as China and India ‘haven’t forgotten’ how it treated them.

He said: ‘We don’t get the right to choose which bits we remember.’