The above is from the website "Topple the Racists" which has jumped onto the band-waggon after the Bristol statue of Edward Colston was toppled. It is "a crowdsourced map of UK statues and monuments that celebrate slavery and racism".
And they say:
What do we want?
To promote debate. It's important to shine a light on the continued adoration of colonial icons and symbols.
Are you saying the statues should be torn down?
It's up to local communities to decide what statues they want in their local areas. We hope the map aids these much-needed dialogues. Taking down a statue could also include moving it to a museum, for example.
That is remarkably hypocritical for a site which calls itself "Topple the Racists", to say that it is only "to promote debate" and offers advice on what local communities decide when the site name suggests one approach only!
Why I've picked "Robert Peel" is because this site is so badly checked, so slip-shod in its approach to history, that they've got the wrong Robert Peel! That hasn't stopped calls for his statues to be removed. I'm still waiting for them to change the site, and put up an apology for the mistake.
There are statues in Bury, Manchester, Preston, Leeds and Glasgow and there is agitation for them to all be removed. But the site, and campaigners who trust its accuracy, are calling for the removal of Sir Robert Peel statues because they have confused him with his less famous father - who was also called Sir Robert Peel!
The Glasgow citation describes Sir Robert Peel as "Conservative PM (1834-35 and 1841-46) and creator of the modern police force. Actively petitioned against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill".
In Leeds, the map listing says "Sir Robert saw the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill as a threat to the cotton industry and to the cotton industry in Manchester. He raised a petition highlighting the risk it presented to the merchants and their trade interests."
But was actually Sir Robert Peel's father, the 1st Baronet Sir Robert Peel, who petitioned against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill in 1806, when his son was still a teenager and had yet to embark on a political career.
Now other campaigners have argued that father and son would have shared a similar worldview. They say because the Peel family fortune was founded on a cotton industry which exploited slave labour in the US, the younger Sir Robert Peel should no longer be honoured in UK cities. But they couldn't have been further apart. The father actively promoted the vested interest of the landowning class, but the son broke with his own party to remove that vested interest in abolishing the Corn Laws.
As Peel Society chairman Margaret Clarke said: “Before anyone starts eyeing up a Tamworth statue to overturn please note the following correct information:
“Sir Robert Peel MP, then Prime Minister, supported William Wilberforce’s Anti-Slavery Bill wholeheartedly. This was in the face of opposition from many of his fellow parliamentary members in the then government. Those who watched the recent TV Series on Victoria may have spotted a very brief moment of Peel being harangued for his support."
“The Anti-Slavery Bill gained its second reading and eventually became law.
“Sir Robert Peel, is also remembered for supporting the poor by the Repeal of The Corn Laws - again in the face of fierce opposition from merchants and members. Earlier, as the Ireland Secretary, he also imported grain from the US when Ireland’s Potato Famine was decimating the population.”
MP Christopher Pincher said: “Tamworth’s Robert Peel emancipated the Catholics, slashed the use of the death penalty so it really only applied for murder, cut food costs for the ordinary family by repealing the Corn Laws and founded our unarmed police force. That is the very police force that continues to protect us today.
“Peel served as a minister in a Government that made slave trading an offence. As Prime Minister, Peel stationed a Royal Naval squadron off the west coast of Africa with the task of supressing the Atlantic slave trade. Between 1808-1860, this West Africa Squadron captured 1,500 slave ships and freed 150,000 slaves. People have a right to be critical of history, but if they wish to do so they might at least get their history right in the first place.
And he has this to say, which I think deserves a wider hearing. Just as we follow the rule of law and don't lynch people, we need a proper debate about statues, not a mob of activists (some of whom probably just enjoy some legitimised vandalism) tearing down statues without due process:
“On a wider point, the illegal pulling down of statues is not something we like in Britain. We use quiet and measured approaches, and the tried and tested tools for change."
“Our buildings and monuments can be changed through petition, debating and voting, all at a local level. We have the right to peaceful protest in this county, a right that many citizens across the world do not have, but we do not have the right to attack our police forces or smash public property. We must tackle the inequalities in our society, to raise up the opportunities and chances for all, where your colour or background does not discriminate or determine your chances in life."
“At the same time we should be very proud of much of our history, whilst learning from those aspects of the past that belong in the past. We should not, quite literally, pull history down and throw it away.”
“On a wider point, the illegal pulling down of statues is not something we like in Britain. We use quiet and measured approaches, and the tried and tested tools for change."
“Our buildings and monuments can be changed through petition, debating and voting, all at a local level. We have the right to peaceful protest in this county, a right that many citizens across the world do not have, but we do not have the right to attack our police forces or smash public property. We must tackle the inequalities in our society, to raise up the opportunities and chances for all, where your colour or background does not discriminate or determine your chances in life."
“At the same time we should be very proud of much of our history, whilst learning from those aspects of the past that belong in the past. We should not, quite literally, pull history down and throw it away.”
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