Monuments to ‘aggressors’ may have to be demolished as ‘offensive’, according to new Welsh Government guidelines
British monuments erected to celebrate “older white men” can be dismantled or moved so as not to offend the public, according to new Welsh Government guidance cited by the Telegraph on Saturday. The newspaper said the document is expected to be finalized this month.
Guidance calls for monuments “may be offensive to people today who see them in a different light”, including as “aggressors who conquered peoples to extend the British Empire.”
The document would claim that the existing memorials project the “The perception that the accomplishments that society regards as remarkable are those of powerful, older, able-bodied white men.”
According to the Telegraph, the statues of General Arthur Wellesley and Admiral Horatio Nelson, hailed for their victories against Napoleon, could fall under this heading. Both commanders have been accused by activists in the past of promoting colonialism and slavery.
The guidelines advise authorities and other public institutions to “take action” set up “the good historical narrative”, according to the newspaper.
Proposed options include destruction and relocation of “offensive and unwanted articles.” It is also recommended that officials “discreetly frame monuments or creatively enclose them in new works of art”, as well as the removal of street and building names that the public finds inappropriate.
Several statues have been toppled or defaced in Britain since 2020, when anti-racism protests and riots broke out in the United States and other Western countries. The outrage was initially sparked by the killing of an African-American man named George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Campaigners have insisted that some monuments glorify shameful parts of British history. In 2020 they tore down the statue of merchant, politician and slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. The monument to Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square was vandalized the same year during a Black Lives Matter protest.
The attacks on the memorials have provoked backlash from some government officials. Robert Jenrick, then Communities Secretary, described the activists in 2021 as “a screaming crowd” to try “modifying or censoring the past.”
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