Historian slams woke university’s blame game
Even by his unwavering wartime standards, it was an epic display of the bulldog spirit. Just hours after a Luftwaffe raid in April 1941, Churchill presided at a degree ceremony at Bristol as chancellor of its university, amid what his private secretary described as ‘devastation such as I had never thought possible’, and gave an impromptu speech likening the ‘fortitude’ of Bristol to that of ‘Ancient rome’.
But now, claim some furious alumni, the Wills family — donors of what, in today’s money, equates to hundreds of millions of pounds — will see their name expunged from the university, and even from the landmark building where Churchill gave his speech. If approved, it would be a result of what critics allege is a bogus ‘consultation’ about benefactors’ connections with slavery.
Churchill’s biographer Andrew roberts fears the alumni’s concerns are not misplaced, pointing out that the university has stated the Wills family ‘ benefited from slavery’ as 19th-century tobacconists — even though they neither owned slaves nor traded them.
It’s evidence, he tells me, that ‘the woke movement has moved on to attack people who had perfectly legal businesses. It’s what the woke movement wants: the complete association of Britain — which, after 1833, was fighting against the slave trade — with slavery, so we can say: “We’re all guilty.” ’
By that standard, he adds, so, too, is anyone ‘wearing a T-shirt made in China. Will they be excoriated by future generations for owning something made in a dictatorship?’
none of the woke warriors, Lord roberts reflects, will emulate even a fraction of the ‘enormous philanthropic generosity’ of the Wills family, one of whom, Sir David Wills, established the Ditchley Foundation, which ‘works with people from across the world to help sustain peace, freedom and order’.
A Bristol University spokesman insists: ‘ no decisions have yet been made.’