Tuesday 19 January 2021

Government protects slave-owner statues

 Well, actually it doesn't. The proposed changes to planning legislation will have no effect on "baying mobs". Besides, the worst of the hysteria has passed. A reasonable compromise, relying on the good sense of local authorities and of their electorate seems to have been reached. Memorials to the most egregious exploiters of slaves have been removed from public view while statues of those whose involvement with the trade is more tangential and far outweighed by their good works have been allowed to remain. Context has been added in many cases. 

The Conservatives used to highlight a policy of "town hall, not Whitehall". They rightly mistrusted putting too much decision-making in the hands of a central authority. That began to change under Thatcher and has been decisively reversed under Johnson. The principle of good governance has been forgotten in favour of throwing red meat to those who want to strike back at the Black Lives Matter movement. The proposed legislation is at best pointless. It also adds to bureaucracy. At worst, it is tendentious.


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