London – The UK government is proposing a controversial new law to protect historic monuments in England after statues of slave traders were toppled or removed by local authorities during Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
Currently local authorities in England must approve major changes to buildings, but the same rules do not apply to images. The new legislation would extend building requirements to statues and add an option for the national government to veto decisions by local councils.
“An attempt has been made to impose a single, often negative narrative, which is not so much reminiscent of our national narrative, but erases part of it. This was done by the flash mob or by the decree of a ‘cultural committee’ of City Hall militants and people who have awakened, ‘wrote Community Secretary Robert Jenrick in an article in the British newspaper Sunday Telegraph.
The proposed legislation must be approved by parliament to become law.
“What has stood for generations should be carefully considered, not removed on impulse or at the behest of a barking crowd,” Jenrick continued.
In June, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston, who died 300 years ago, was toppled and thrown into a river by Black Lives Matter protesters in the English city of Bristol, causing a debate on heritage and inclusion. Local officials, after consulting with various parties, decided that the Colston statue would be placed next to protest signs in a museum.
“It’s up to us to make sure we capture this moment so that future generations understand the journey Bristol has taken,” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees told the BBC at the time.
Shortly thereafter, the Mayor of London Sidiq Khan established a new Commission on Diversity in the Public Domain to review public monuments, art and street names in the capital so that they reflect the diversity of the city and to “ promote the discussion of what legacies are celebrated. “
“There are some slave traders who should come down, and the committee will advise on that,” Khan told BBC News. Under the proposed legislation, the national government could veto decisions by local authorities on the advice of the commission.
Members of the art community, historians and racial equality activists were quick to criticize the government’s plan, accusing it of trying to divert it from more pressing issues, including the widely criticized response to the pandemic that left the UK with the worst per capita. of the population. COVID-19 death rate from every country.
“(It’s) smoke and mirrors,” Dr. Halima Begum, director of the Runnymede Trust, the think tank of the Runnymede Trust, to the Guardian newspaper. With one eye on the next election, Jenrick has used this article to spark an artificial culture war, to shake up the Tory base and distract from this government’s dire shortcomings around Covid. . ”
“I wish we could get away from the language of disapproval and obliteration and understand that this is about broadening, deepening and creating fair and inclusive stories,” tweeted Sharon Heal, the director of the Museum Association’s advocacy group.