Letters: What kind of country are we now, when the Cenotaph and Churchill’s statue are boarded up?

Workers erect scaffold around the statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square ahead of anti-racist demonstrations in London
Workers erect scaffold around the statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square ahead of anti-racist demonstrations in London Credit: Anadolu Agency

SIR – Senior NHS figures have shown themselves to be spineless by deciding to remove Thomas Guy’s statue from outside Guy’s Hospital.

That the statue of Churchill has been covered up shows that the Government is also spineless.

What sort of country have we become that even the Cenotaph, the memorial to the Glorious Dead, has had to be covered to protect it, due to the inability of the forces of law and order so to do?

Michael Wilkinson FRCS
Seaview, Isle of Wight

 

SIR – We are staring down the barrel of civil disorder. Having to board up the statue of Churchill is a disgrace.

What on earth is going on with people? We need to get back to work as soon as possible.

David Dickinson
Swansea

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SIR – I wondered for some time what woke meant. I thought that perhaps it was “aware” or “concerned”.

I can now see that it means a complete intolerance for anyone who does not support your views and attitudes, no matter how extreme.

Richard Davies
Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire

 

SIR – Why is it Left-wing extremists who try to undermine our society? I was brought up in a household with strong socialist and trade-union beliefs. I was taught to be loyal, patriotic and tolerant. Where have these values gone?

Sheila Williams
Sunningdale, Berkshire

 

SIR – Deryck Browne (Letters, June 11) says that “young people will feel fully justified in tearing down those monuments to murder that they are expected to walk past every day” if the legacy of slavery is not apologised for.

Who is supposed to apologise? No one alive in Britain owned slaves.

Dr John Fannon
Weymouth, Dorset

 

SIR – In 2007 Tony Blair apologised for our part in slavery. What is occurring now is madness and mob rule.

Jacqueline Butler
Macclesfield, Cheshire

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SIR – Speaking as a sculptress, I can tell you that sculptures matter. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, speaks of the “far Right” who plan to take to the streets to defend our statues. It is possible that you may also see a lady of a certain age with a large umbrella and a small dog.

Hilary Chelminski
Addiscombe, Surrey

 

Baden-Powell, the ‘Defender of Mafeking’ in the Boer War, a magic lantern slide, 1899
Baden-Powell, the ‘Defender of Mafeking’ in the Boer War, a magic lantern slide, 1899 Credit: Bridgeman Images

SIR – Baden-Powell was the very antithesis of a racist. Exactly 100 years ago, long before such views were fashionable, he gave an address to scoutmasters stating that the spirit of scouting “can only be understood by outsiders when they see it ruling the thoughts and actions of each member of our brotherhood – a scheme which in practice disregards difference in class, creed, country and colour”.

His views in this regard never wavered throughout his long life. Baden-Powell saw in Mein Kampf “wonderful ideas on education, health, propaganda organisation etc”; but in his summation he added “and ideals which Hitler does not practise himself”.

The Hitler Youth was a perversion of the Boy Scout Movement. Hitler saw the Boy Scouts as “a haven for young men opposed to the new State”. He banned the Scouts in 1934, and in 1940 Baden-Powell’s name went into Hitler’s “Black Book” – a list of those to be detained on sight had his invasion of Britain come to fruition.

During this present campaign to besmirch the reputation of almost every British hero, I wonder whether the perpetrators are truly ignorant, or just pretend to be, so as to further their own perverted political agenda.

Nicholas Young
London W13

 

SIR – If there are empty plinths, there might be some commemoration of the 1,587 Royal Navy personnel who, between 1808 and 1867, died on the West Africa Station while saving 150,000 black Africans from slavery and seizing 1,600 slave ships.

At the very least, such sacrifice should be acknowledged by all sections of opinion.

Michael Durey
Sorrento, Western Australia

 

SIR – What happened to freedom of speech?

C D Waterfall
Bedford

 

J K Rowling under fire

J K Rowling criticised an article that referred to 'people who menstruate' – 'I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,' she wrote. 'Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?'
J K Rowling criticised an article that referred to 'people who menstruate' – 'I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,' she wrote. 'Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' Credit:  Samir Hussein/WireImage

SIR – I have never before felt compelled to write to a newspaper, but the J K Rowling row over being a woman (report, June 12) forces me.

I am a woman, or thought I was. This was something I was certain of. I am now too old to menstruate. Am I to call myself “a person who used to menstruate”? Am I to be stripped of certainty by others’ selfish demands?

I am not transphobic, and I also take issue with the bullying nature of those who know what it is to feel marginalised yet seek to marginalise others. They do themselves no favours in attacking J K Rowling, who should not have succumbed to pressure to publish her private world.

The sex at birth of the vast majority of babies is male or female. (There are, I think, a very few born with both sex organs.) When maturity and experience allow, we can choose a gender, and for transgender people there should be no issue.

What matters to me is others seeking to displace me as a woman and rename me in functional terms. Being a woman is one of the only special things I have. Having children is one of the only special things I have done. Do not seek to obliterate womankind and make my life meaningless.

If anybody wants to be a woman, go for it – menstruation or no menstruation. But be clear: there is a suffragette in all women somewhere, and we will not be silenced by bullies.

Pam Siddorn
Chester

 

SIR – Whatever the reaction of celebrities, J K Rowling needs to know that many millions of us agree with her views on gender and safe single-sex spaces. Keep telling the truth.

Andy Brown
Allestree, Derbyshire

 

Lockdown families

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SIR – At breakfast, my wife suggested a “quickie” divorce (Letters, June 10) so that we can each see our grandchildren.

Malcolm Whittle
Newbury, Berkshire

 

SIR – My wife and I have isolated since lockdown began. We are still not allowed to meet our son and his family or hug our grandchildren, but our friend, who lives on her own, can meet hers. I fail to understand the logic or science behind this bizarre decision.

For the first time in my 71 years, I am contemplating breaking the law.

Jim Parker
Bristol

 

Opposing the Israeli government’s land grab

SIR – From July 1 Israel’s prime minister is set on annexing Palestinian West Bank territory to become part of “Greater Israel”. Annexing the Jordan Valley leaves an enclave around Jericho – a bantustan – and dismembers Palestine itself, making it impossible for any future Palestinian government to administer. Such is Benjamin Netanyahu’s clear intent. We must recognise this as a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Boris Johnson rightly said: “A Palestinian state is the only way to secure Israel’s demographic future as a Jewish and democratic nation … You have to have a two-state solution or else you have a kind of apartheid.”

Mr Netanyahu seeks to perpetuate the military occupation, thereby destroying any chance of peace with justice, denying Palestinians their right to self-determination and destabilising Jordan along the way. Passions will be inflamed.

The British Government’s recognition of the state of Palestine alongside Israel on pre-June 1967 lines is both right and necessary to preserve the two-state solution and to serve the cause of peace.

Mr Johnson should give a lead now to the many in Israel, the region and Europe who oppose annexation by warning of severe consequences stemming from it. These should include measures against illegal settlements and sanctions following the precedent of Russia’s illegal takeover of Crimea. Mr Netanyahu then cannot say he was not warned.

Crispin Blunt MP (Con)
Alistair Carmichael MP (Lib Dem)
Baroness Warsi (Con)
Lord Dubs (Lab)
Lord Hain (Lab)
Baroness Blackstone (Lab)
The Marquess of Lothian (Con)
Sir Nicholas Soames
Andy Slaughter MP (Lab)
Dr Philippa Whitford MP (SNP)
Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench)
David Jones MP (Con)
Layla Moran MP (Lib Dem)
Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (Lab)
Andrew Selous MP (Con)
Tommy Sheppard MP (SNP)
Julie Elliott MP (Lab)
Richard Burden
Sir Vincent Fean
Chris Doyle 
Hugh Lovatt 

 

Sparkling horse bits

SIR – Like Andrew Douglass (Letters, June 11) my husband degreases model locomotives in the dishwasher, but as I am banned from stacking it (apparently, I don’t do so properly), he does not have to wait until I am out.

It is also excellent for cleaning my horse’s bits, which I happily arrange next to the locos once he is otherwise occupied in his train room.

Susan Shakespeare
Carlisle, Cumbria

 

SIR – In northern Nigeria in the Seventies, my colleagues overcame the problem of an almost non-existent supply of gas not with a dishwasher, but by cooking on a Morphy Richards electric iron, propped up by two piles of books.

From simple fry-ups, they graduated to excellent sponge cakes, with an upside-down biscuit box covering the cake tin as it baked.

Frances Gillespie
Fortingall, Perthshire

 

Council health bodies stop schools opening

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SIR – I chair the governors at a primary school. We were ready to open on June 1, in line with government guidelines.

At the last minute, we were “advised” by the local council’s public health body that it was not safe to open. This has happened twice now, and each time we were told that we can make an individual decision based on circumstances.

However, we are under the threat of litigation should something go wrong; we may lack insurance, and teaching unions are telling staff that they should not attend. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t, but please don’t blame the Government. Rather, blame the all-powerful unions who appear to be holding local councils to ransom. To my shame, ours is a Conservative county council.

Anna Shone
Lancaster

 

SIR – In the Eighties, the Chinese Communist Party declared that adults should sacrifice their lives and ambitions to support their children in work to build a greater China.

We thought that it was extreme and bizarre – but it was not nearly as ridiculous as this Government’s decision to sacrifice our children’s futures to protect us elderly people.

Robert Mansfield
Bramhope, West Yorkshire

 

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