Fury as college called Churchill ‘trashes’ his life
THE grandson of Sir Winston Churchill has questioned whether a university college named after him should benefit from the link after it hosted an event “trashing” the war leader’s reputation.
The former prime minister was described as the “perfect embodiment of white supremacy” at an online discussion held by Churchill College, Cambridge.
Academics taking part in the discussion of the “racial consequences of Mr Churchill” claimed that Sir Winston was influenced by white supremacy ideas and one participant said the British empire “was far worse than the Nazis”.
Sir Winston’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, right, said the academics had made “many factually incorrect, deeply offensive and ignorant remarks”.
The ex-tory MP, 73, said: “This constitutes, in my view, a new low in the current vogue for the denigration in general of British history and of Sir Winston Churchill’s memory in particular.
“This is now sadly quite common. But I never would have expected Churchill College to participate in it.”
Sir Nicholas said that the college “benefits enormously” from the Churchill name but “if they traduce it, should they be able to have their cake and eat it?”.
“If there was one academic institution in the world that one would hope and expect would give Churchill a full and fair hearing – rather than give a platform to those who overlook his astonishing contribution to the defeat of the most murderously racist regime in all history – it surely should be Churchill College, Cambridge, named in my grandfather’s honour.
“It really seems to me that the college should be defending his remarkable legacy, not allowing pseudoacademic detractors to smear him unchallenged.”
Sir Nicholas’ remarks came in the foreword to a report by the Policy Exchange think tank.
It was responding to the discussion, part of the college’s Churchill, Empire and Race programme, which aims for an “honest reckoning with the past in all its complexity and nuance”. The Policy Exchange report described the event as “character assassination” and an “attack on Sir Winston Churchill in a blatant attempt to discredit him”. Churchill College declined to comment. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden is meeting the Common Sense group of MPS next week over claims that heritage bodies such as Historic England and the National Trust are denigrating British history.
IT IS A POWERFUL myth that history has a predefined and inevitable course and that all change is positive. This is not what life’s journey teaches us. Things can and do get better, but deterioration is just as likely. With this in mind, as the impressively efficient rollout of the Covid vaccine means the Prime Minister could set out the one-way road back to life as normal, now is the time to consider to what kind of “normal” we want to return.
The pandemic has facilitated the growth of online shopping and made a long-predicted move to home-working a reality. Physical changes – such as screens in supermarkets to protect checkout staff – may become permanent. But what about the wholesale departure from how we work, rest and play?
The crisis has exacerbated the lonely introspection already growing as communal life shrinks and the virtual world expands.
At first, being freed from the need to travel through congested streets to work may have brought relief, with extra time for solitary reflection. Similarly, extended school holidays were doubtless welcomed by fun-seeking schoolchildren.
Now, however, the harsh effects of perpetual separation from colleagues, families and friends are being felt. Chatting on social media or meeting through video conferencing are just not as rewarding as the company of others in person. Many of us are suffering from a mild form of sensory deprivation.
In truth, we long to live, love and laugh together once again.
The very old and the young are at the greatest risk from isolation. There are few lonelier places than isolation in a remote rural cottage or a high-rise urban garret.
Studies suggest that social interactions have a big impact on our wellbeing, with lonely people more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, while remaining socially active may help to delay its onset.
To be at our best, we need to meet, know and value other people – it’s as simple as that.
For children the consequences of being locked down endlessly are just as severe. Cerebral function
may be inhibited without the stimulation of being in school to develop communication skills, creativity, empathy, and confidence,
Beyond the fear and the pain of loss, the greatest risk of the pandemic is that we embed the peculiarities that have been necessary during its course.
A shift to a virtual world would help to further embed social divisions because it is the most privileged who are also the most socialised. The wealthy benefit from extensive interaction through life – from boarding school onwards – helping them to develop the selfconfidence and networks that make success seem effortless. Having a rich and fulfilling social life could become as restricted as a public school education.
The move to a virtual world poses a still greater danger to our open society. In a crisis it may be necessary to narrow the parameters of debate, but this is no excuse for the way social media companies shut down anyone who questions received wisdom about the pandemic. Even fully researched articles criticising the World Health Organisation for its failure to properly investigate whether Covid escaped from a lab in Wuhan have been removed from Facebook.
We must do all we can to prevent the worst of what began as temporary fixes becoming permanent. The Prime Minister’s statement
last week on ending the lockdown was heavily qualified with worst-case scenarios, any of which risks embedding the destructive effects of the past year.
The return of schools and colleges is welcome. Online teaching should not become a permanent characteristic of learning.
Similarly, the advantages online retailers enjoy from a tax system geared to fast-disappearing high street retailers must be addressed. Amazon made sales in the UK of almost £14billion last year, but paid just £293million in tax. The Budget should look at those who have benefited most. And if social media now edit content, they should be treated as publishers, subject to the same laws as newspapers.
Parliament should abandon online participation.without lively debate in a crowded Chamber representative democracy becomes a flaccid, sorrowful thing.
The pandemic should be a wakeup call, making us aware of all we will lose if we continue on the road to a virtual world. Its lessons about community and care, of national unity and purpose must drive us to seek a better “normal” nourished by fairness, nurtured by fraternity.
Just as the war years ushered in a better future for my generation, we must now ensure that the privations of the present inspire us to build a better future for our children and theirs.
There are few lonelier places than a remote rural cottage or a high-rise urban garret
HAVE you picked up on it yet? We’ve gone back to being a society of the “haves and the have nots” – with the difference being that this time it’s neither about cash nor possessions, but whether you’re fortunate enough to “have” had the Covid vaccination.
Chances are if you’re old enough to remember when the numbers on footballers’ shirts only went from one to 11 and avocado was the colour of your bathroom suite, not mashed with peppers and served as breakfast, most conversations you have had recently with family, friends or total strangers have all been about whether or not you’ve had the jab.
Callers to my radio show told me stories last week of what they have done to ensure they, or their loved ones, are among the “haves”. One man in Suffolk walked for half an hour, then took two buses and a train to get his jab. An elderly woman in Herefordshire took three hours to get her and a friend to her vaccination centre because she had wrongly entered her postcode and “didn’t want to trouble anyone or the NHS any further because they’re so busy.”
Having had their jabs, they spent an hour drinking coffee to prepare themselves for the three-hour journey home, which had to be completed on a motorway in the dark.
The same day one think tank urged the Government to offer a door-to-door vaccine service in hard to reach, deprived and minority ethnic communities.
Runnymede Trust chief executive Dr Halima Begum warned that if this hugely expensive undertaking wasn’t considered, the virus could be seen as a disease of poverty. To back up this well-intentioned suggestion some data was provided for the Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East part of Birmingham. This inner-city area has a large Somali population and 90 per cent of its residents are BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic).
However, just 57 per cent of the over-80s have had their first vaccination, compared with an estimated 93.4 per cent nationally.
Yet quite why this deficit should be resolved by anyone other than these deserving folk and their families is baffling.
What’s next? Are we meant to provide a service to make sure people bolt their doors at night or remember to wear a vest?
In an interview Dr Begum said: “Usually, the affluent middle classes will end up accessing services better, whereas those with less voice and who might experience
STUDY the picture above and what do you see? If your answer is a powerful, if a little puzzling, anti-crime campaign by Merseyside Police you’d – regrettably – be mistaken.
In truth, it is another damning and shameful example of how our police forces have allowed themselves to become a trendy, Left-leaning adjunct to the local social services department.
The motive of this initiative was spot on. Bearing the rainbow flag, the banner proclaimed: “Merseyside Police stand with and support the LGBTQ+ community, we will not tolerate hate at any level.”
Quite right too. But it was impossible to miss the accompanying glaring statement: “Being Offensive Is An Offence”. It was in fact wrong. Unforgivably,
... racism will experience barriers to health access.” So the fact that a vaccination has been made universally available and the NHS boasts translators in more languages than a meeting of the UN is still not enough! There has to be a degree of comprehensively, gold-plated, bang to rights wrong. So how did it happen, and how come senior coppers such as Merseyside’s Deputy Chief Constable Serena Kennedy piled in with their support?
The answer is as plain as a crook climbing down a ladder from an upstairs window wearing a striped sweater, mask, with a sack full of family silver.
The way to get on in the police now is to show you’re in tune with each and every “community” and will invent false laws to support it.
Ordinary folk who have just had their cars broken into or garden strimmers nicked can just be fobbed off with a crime number.
It’s no longer just “the job” to knock down doors and nick villains.
individual responsibility here – as the Queen rightly pointed out last week.
The incredible roll-out of the vaccination programme has been world beating for a country of this size and has shown everything that is best about Britain.
Our ground-breaking scientists have developed a star vaccine.
Our military has worked with our NHS to deliver it to millions of grateful people.
And they’ve been supported by an army of volunteers, mostly unpaid, who have manned our sports stadiums, car parks and churches to get the jabs into people’s arms.
These vaccines are lifesavers and shouldn’t have to be delivered like a pizza.
Everyone’s doing their bit. Now it’s time to do yours, for you and those you love.