Let’s not condone suffragette violence

RUTH Davidson and those supporters of a posthumous pardon for the suffragettes have in their passion for this important centenary for women’s votes misplaced their judgment. While it is undisputable that these great champions for women’s rights suffered greatly for their justified cause, their means and methods broke the law.

We should therefore not be rewriting history but celebrating people like the suffragettes who forced a change in society and the way we live for the better.

Their slogan “deeds not words” was a demand on the politicians to change and give women the vote but it was also a call to arms under which some horrific events took place, including arson, attempted murder, the placement of bombs and the wilful destruction of property and works of art.

We would not advocate acts of terrorism today to achieve our ends and nor should we condone those of the past by the suffragettes.

Claude Keith

I WAS glad to read in Sam Leith’s column that he and his family enjoyed the women’s suffrage event at the Museum of London on Sunday. I was there too for the London

Visions exhibition, but unfortunately the women’s suffrage event took place in the same area. It was bedlam. I ended up squashed up against the photographs and unable to enjoy the exhibition. Perhaps the museum could choose the location of their exhibitions more carefully?

Julia Bristow