PM lashes statue crusade
A statue of Winston Churchill has been sealed inside a protective steel barrier ahead of a massive London race protest which Prime Minister Boris Johnson says has been ‘‘hijacked’’ by extremists.
Construction workers boarded up the heritage-listed 3.5-metre tall bronze monument to the former prime minister overnight (Friday NZT) amid fears it could be torn down or become a flashpoint for clashes between rival protesters this weekend.
The extraordinary sight has shocked Britain. London mayor Sadiq Khan also ordered another eight statues to be covered by protective casing while tensions are high. Those statues include tributes to Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington, and the cenotaph near Downing Street.
In his strongest comments yet on the demonstrations sweeping Britain in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota, a furious Johnson lashed the growing campaign to tear down statues of historic figures with links to racism or slavery.
‘‘The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny,’’ Johnson said on Friday.
‘‘It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack.’’
Churchill has been credited as Britain’s greatest prime minister following the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II. However, he also harboured racist attitudes towards Indians and indigenous Australians, and his policies have been blamed for causing the Bengal famine of 1943 in which up to three million people.
‘‘Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history.
‘‘The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations. They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong.
‘‘But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults.
To tear them down would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come.’’
Churchill’s statue was vandalised last weekend on the same day a monument to 17th century slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston was torn down in Bristol and thrown into the harbour.
Nine, AP