Minister’s sensible words rightly spark a rethink on Buller statue

CRITICS might call it “creeping wokeism.” Others might, more generously, say that, when a minority shouts loudly enough, it can start a trend that drowns out more sane and sensible voices.

But however you view it, the speed at which ideas about what is “acceptable” to modern sensibilities are taken up can be alarming – and not always running at the same pace as broader public opinion.

That is certainly how many viewed the explosion of anger aimed at British statutory and other public buildings when their historical backgrounds were highlighted by those at the centre of the Black Lives Matter protests last year. It led to the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol and saw local authorities and other bodies up and down the land rethink their attitude to everything from famous country houses to street names.

When a runaway train of an idea takes hold – as this one seemed to – governments can often be reluctant to intervene. The danger in opposing extremism in one direction is that you can be accused of supporting it in the other. It leads to people who chose not to “take the knee,” for example, being accused of racism when they simply want to express their moderate views in other ways.

So three cheers for Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick when he said, last month, that he thought Britain should not try to edit or censor its past and that any decision to remove heritage assets would need planning permission and a consultation with local communities.

Exeter City Council had planned both of those as they considered a recommendation to move to a “less sensitive” location the statue of Victorian war hero, and Victoria Cross holder, General Sir Redvers Buller, astride his horse, Biffen.

Clearly sensing the way the wind is blowing in Government, councillors now look likely to abandon any plans to uproot the statue and its plinth and to let the matter rest.

That decision – if they choose to take it next Tuesday – will be the correct one. It is easy to run away with the idea that, when a relatively small number of activists gain a great deal of publicity for their ideas, that the nation is with them. On this issue, it is not. That does not mean that people in Exeter are unsympathetic to the feelings of those who might feel the Buller statue is disrespectful to the peoples of Britain’s former colonies, or that they see Buller today in the same way that those Devonians who raised money for his statue did.

Context and understanding are crucial, and, if the debate around moving the statue has done some good, it is in raising awareness of the more nuanced nature of Buller’s achievements in what was a very different world to today’s. Mr Jenrick said: “What has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob.”

That is not an unreasonable position and nor would it prevent the removal of the Buller statue, if the people of Exeter put pressure on the council to proceed with their plan. We don’t believe they will. They know this statue’s history and can live with it, warts and all.