Right and Wrong

I am laughing myself silly at the prospect of marches to protect statues of people of whom the marchers had never previously heard, and quite possibly still could not name, or tell you the first thing about.

If anyone other than the campaigners to remove their statues had remembered who those people were, then their monuments would have gone to museums a very long time ago. In their own terms, then, those monuments are a complete and utter failure.

Anyway, look out for three EDL types and a Union Jack-draped dog, "guarding" the wrong statue, quite possibly in the wrong town, and certainly in the wrong country. They will have had a message on WhatsApp. You will not want to see that message. Never let it be said that the English Defence League defended English.

They themselves will probably be descended from the workers who had taken direct action against the slavery-related activities of their employers and of their landlords. In the same locality, they will very probably be descended from those who had been sacked, or evicted, or had the troops turned on them, or what have you, by exactly the individual whose forgotten "memory" they were now trying to "protect". 

The late and legendary leader of the Durham Miners' Association, Davey Hopper, was forever telling me how much he wanted to take down the statue of Lord Londonderry in Durham Marketplace, "Where our people have to look at it on Gala Day." But, regrettable though this might be for other reasons, hardly any of them know that it is of him. That is a victory of sorts. In fact, when you see that statue swamped by the Gala even today, then it is a very great victory indeed.

And note that all of this is happening under a Conservative Government with a huge majority, headed by the Prime Minister for whom the Right ached and bellyached for 20 years. Is his image going to go up on those plinths instead? If not, then whose is, exactly? And why, exactly?