Old dead white guys matter (Part One)

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post here on BW.com about the campaign to take down the statue of Cecil Rhodes in Oriel College, Oxford.

“Expect to see a trend of heartfelt self-criticism, in some weird collegiate version of the Cultural Revolution.”

I was right about what would happen, but boy…I could never have predicted the intensity. The killing of George Floyd has been the excuse for the cultural Marxists (and their fellow travellers and useful idiots) to relaunch the campaign which is now rampaging through our streets and the media like a demented rhino on speed.

In the last week or so in the US the usual Confederate memorials have been joined by Columbus and even Edward Carmack a prohibitionist who was murdered by opponents. In the UK a statue of Edward Colstan, a slave trader and major benefactor of the city of Bristol, was torn down and dumped in the harbour. The collection of statues in Whitehall and Parliament Square were vandalised, including statues of Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln, who one might have thought would be safe. I will look at the various other intended targets in part two, here I would like to concentrate on the two most serious ones.

The acts that have stirred up the real fury and hatred (I don’t use the words lightly) of many British people including me, were the desecration of the Cenotaph and the vandalism of the statue of Churchill.

The Cenotaph (meaning empty tomb) is the national war memorial, built one hundred years ago in the middle of Whitehall. It is the focus of the National Service of Remembrance which happens at 11 am on the Sunday nearest 11^th November. Led by the Sovereign, wreaths are laid by senior members of the royal family, the PM and main opposition party leaders and the representatives of the Commonwealth nations, most of whom are black. A short service is led by the Dean of the Chapel Royal and senior representatives of the other Christian churches are joined by the Chief Rabbi and Sikh, Hindu Moslem and Buddhist clerics.

I’ve been on marches and demos that went down Whitehall, as we pass the Cenotaph, we fall silent and men remove hats. When I’m with friends up town we do this even walking casually past. Last week the “largely peaceful” protestors put placards on the Cenotaph, it was graffitied with “BLM” and one of the mob climbed up and tried to set fire to the Union Flag. When police intervened and tried to persuade them down the crowd resisted and threw things at them.

The powerful statue of Churchill stands on the spot he himself picked, glaring back at Parliament. It is not unusual for him to receive the attentions of the myriad demos that go through Parliament Square. He was once given a green Mohican when a piece of turf was dug up and put on his head! The vandalism of last weekend was of a different order, not so much physically but in its intent. With other statues being torn down, spray painting “racist” on his plinth can only be seen as notice to quit.

Now, I do not worship at the altar of Churchill. I admire him massively for his courage in the wilderness years and even more for his leadership of our country during the war and the role he played in bringing the alliance together to destroy National Socialism. I also very much like him as a personality. I do see his faults though, he was fallible, as we all are. Nevertheless, he is iconic, in the true and literal sense of the word. His image not just an image of a politician, it is a symbol of Britain, of her defiance and fortitude in the face of evil. He stands for Britain.

Both the Cenotaph and Churchill are symbols of Britain, of all of us, of all faiths and none, of all colours and backgrounds. To attack them is to attack Britain.

So, what was the severe and magisterial response of the authorities to this sacrilegious provocation? The Met police actually removed (on threat of arrest) a group of very brave chaps who were already protecting Churchill, they then stood back and let the mob do its work. The Mayor of London’s first reaction was to set up a commission to look at taking down more statues. Our Prime Minister has raged impotently but done nothing. The statues and memorials most at risk have been boarded up to protect them. In Poole, Dorset, the local (Conservative) council were going to remove the statue of Robert Baden-Powell “for its own safety.” The locals gathered at the statue and said loudly “no you’re bloody not!”. A couple of lads even camped out to protect BP and make sure the council didn’t sneak him off in the night. He’s now been boarded over too, as has George Washington in Trafalgar Square.

People have not reacted well to this craven official attitude. Considering here in the UK we can still be fined for having more than six people in our garden for a barbeque under the lockdown to see BLM crowds gather day after day in their scores, hundreds and thousands is galling enough. To see the authorities refuse to apply those same rules to a mob that has carried out such acts and then to take such a passive line is both depressing and infuriating.

I have seen no statements of regret or apology from the protest organisers, and I have looked. Videos of the various incidents show very clearly that the vandalism is not the work of individuals that the crowd disowns. The mob is complicit, helping out and cheering on. And why wouldn’t they? They’re there to bring down The System, why wouldn’t they bring down symbols of it? Here is a quote from the Black Lives Matter website.

“…we are guided by a commitment to dismantle imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people.”

The public monuments have swiftly been followed by film and TV. The comedies Little Britain, Mighty Boosh and League of Gentlemen, all relatively recent and by lefty artists, have been removed from streaming services. Each involves a form of blackface at some point. Gone with the Wind is also now, well, gone. The film which made Hattie McDaniel the first African American to win and Oscar. Logical? No, mobs rarely are. Now that the online mob has been given physical manifestation on the streets corporations really are running scared. This is all very Cultural Revolution/Year Zero, Mao and Pol Pot must be so proud.

I know the good folk on BW.com know what we are facing is little or nothing to do with the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter is not just a phrase, not just a hashtag, it is a movement fundamentally influenced by Marxism. This movement has replaced the proletariat with black people, but the aim is the same. It is essential we get the folk of goodwill, decency and humanity that are still supporting this Marxist inspired mob rule and Year Zero iconoclasm to realise they are being used.

In part two I’ll explore the whole statue issue in more detail, I really needed to get the venting about the Cenotaph and Churchill out of my system.