Boris leads armada to save our history
BORIS JOHNSON is to lead the fight against the “culture wars” following attacks on British symbols and heroic figures from the past.
The Prime Minister told representatives from the Common Sense group of Tory MPS that he will be making a speech which aims to push back on attempts to censor the UK’S past.
His comments, made last week at a Downing Street summit, came amid allegations that the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich was attempting to “downgrade Nelson’s heroic status”.
The Common Sense group, which is made up of more than 50 MPS and 10 peers, has written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden asking for the museum’s public funding to be blocked until it apologises “for the offence caused to patriotic Britons”.
They also made the same demands regarding the National Trust as they said it had smeared Winston Churchill’s name by putting his Chartwell home in Kent on a blacklist of properties with a rich colonial past.
A source from the group said: “Boris is very sound on these issues and he told us he is planning a major speech on the culture wars.
“He is quite liberal in some ways but it is obvious he has a deep love for British history and figures like Churchill are close to his heart.”
It is understood that chief of staff Dominic Cummings is pushing for him to be more robust against attempts to rewrite British history in the wake of protests which led to riots and statues being toppled.
But there is greater concern that senior corporate figures and people who run national institutions are also undermining British history.
The issue is raised today in the Sunday Express by Morley and Outwood MP Andrea Jenkyns who fears that a review of all statues across Leeds will lead to history being erased.
The Common Sense group last week wrote to Paddy Rodgers, director of the National Maritime Museum, over claims he was reconsidering its display of items belonging to Lord Horatio Nelson.
It followed the emergence of a disputed letter which implied the Vice-admiral was not a supporter of anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce.
In a response to the MPS, Mr Rodgers said his intentions had been misrepresented in the original reporting but acknowledged he had ordered a review when he took up the job.
He noted that the museum has “received numerous complaints from the public”.
He said: “Let me be absolutely clear, there is not, nor has there been, any plan to revise our gallery exhibitions on Nelson.”
Mr Rodgers has offered to meet MPS at Greenwich in south-east London to resolve the issue.
Sir John Hayes, the founder the Common Sense group, made it clear that MPS are still unhappy with the response and Mr Rodgers’s claim that museums have a role to play in reflecting the concerns of the Black Lives Matter group.
He said: “It is of little matter to those who want to falsify history that Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, just two years after Nelson’s untimely death at Trafalgar. If it hadn’t been for Nelson’s victory Britain would not have possessed the naval power necessary to enforce a ban against the wishes of countries that wanted to perpetuate this barbaric trade in human souls.”
WE WELCOME Boris Johnson’s letter to Elaine Wilson – whose husband Robert was killed by teenagers wielding a Samurai sword – where he promises to end the culture of thugs being allowed to boast of ruling a postcode.
The pair involved in the brutal killing had repeatedly gone through the criminal justice system but not received a custodial sentence.
It is now imperative that the Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland see through this pledge in the new sentencing bill with tougher penalties and some surety that dangerous tearaways, even if they are not yet 18, are locked away for the safety of society.