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Original poster

Tommy Robinson's latest rant

45 replies

Rory786 · 12/06/2020 05:33

Tommy Robinson has been urging "men" to protect Churchill's statue at the upcoming BLM protest. This doesnt bode well.....

OP posts:
ElizabethMainwaring · 12/06/2020 05:41

Good grief.
Although, I've just heard on the news that protection is being put around the statue and the Cenotaph. So hopefully nothing will come of it.

AlwaysCheddar · 12/06/2020 06:16

No on has a right to take down a statue. But it’s going to get ugly.

Pollyputthepizzaon · 12/06/2020 06:20

Well... good. The police should be protecting it and if not the vigilante mobs will. The public cannot just destroy public property. That isn’t the world we live in. I hope.

If they want a statue removed there are proper channels to take. This isn’t the right or legal way in a democratic society. They are yobs.

GrammarTeacher · 12/06/2020 06:24

We wouldn't have got to this place if we were more honest about our national heroes. Most people are complex. Nobody is purely one thing. Churchill led us through the war. But he also did some terrible things. Neither negates the other. Both happened. Both should be acknowledged. Putting specific humans on figurative or literal pedestals is a tad foolish. The mythologising of Churchill by some ignores his frailties and the areas he was wrong and cruel.
Tommy Robinson as always, is not needed. And will, intentionally, inflame things for his own reasons.
There are several people that need revisiting though. And I awaiting the campaign to remove Cromwell.

Pommes · 12/06/2020 06:34

I was so surprised that we have standing statues of slave traders - clearly I'm a direct result of a whitewashed education and I will be correcting these knowledge gaps.

Now I'd have liked those statues to be used to tell Britain's slave history... reword the plaques to document Britain's wrongdoings and erect a tribute to the people used as slaves next to the statues like Colston's, with a clearly worded acknowledgement of the atrocities they faced.

StealthPolarBear · 12/06/2020 06:38

Is that this weekend? These are going to get nasty aren't they?

AlwaysCheddar · 12/06/2020 06:46

The slave trader was also a philanthropist and did other great things. Not all bad. You can’t whitewash history .

InfiniteSheldon · 12/06/2020 06:52

Good far left agitators have done enough damage

Lynda07 · 12/06/2020 06:54

Well he would, wouldn't he, Rory? We can expect little else from a thug like Robinson.

(I also read that Nigel Farage has 'resigned' from LBC because he compared BLM to the Taliban.)

Moondust001 · 12/06/2020 06:54

@Pollyputthepizzaon

Well... good. The police should be protecting it and if not the vigilante mobs will. The public cannot just destroy public property. That isn’t the world we live in. I hope.

If they want a statue removed there are proper channels to take. This isn’t the right or legal way in a democratic society. They are yobs.

What a stupid comment. Vigilantism is also not the right or legal way to do something, and to celebrate a far right racists actions about anything, never mind illegal vigilantism, is astonishing. I don't agree with destroying property. I think there are better ways to manage these things. But I certainly don't think they are worth violence on our streets, and if that is the price to pay, then they can throw the bloody lot of them into a harbour. Stone memorials to the "great and the the good" - and many of the great and the good have always been bastards, because nobody gets to that position without stepping on lots of other people - are memorials to only one version of history. And I say that not just in respect of race, but also of gender and class.
chrissys45 · 12/06/2020 07:04

This reply has been deleted

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Sandybval · 12/06/2020 07:06

Maybe if the police started doing their job there wouldn't be a need.

Deathraystare · 12/06/2020 07:08

Most people are complex. Nobody is purely one thing.

This is what I was saying to my black friend yesterday (yes I think her colour is relevant). She was admitting she did not know much about these people's statues (as most of us don't). I was saying I was surprised that the Bristol statue had stayed up that long.

Snowdown24 · 12/06/2020 07:11

This statue thing is annoying people, if the protestors tear another one down I can’t see it ending well for them. You can’t take away Britons history, good or bad.

FredaFrogspawn · 12/06/2020 07:15

No one is taking away history. They’re making it. Not many people knew about Coulson until his statue was pulled down, even though groups have been trying to get it removed legitimately for years.

GrammarTeacher · 12/06/2020 07:22

There has been several attempts to add a plaque reflecting the reality of where his money came from to the Bristol statue. It got held up in council committee. Having seen one of the councillors (with his golly!) it does appear this was deliberate (or at least as the appearance of being). I can see why local frustrations led to this.
People should be more informed all round. Churchill wasn't even first choice to replace Chamberlain and he lost the election after the war. People at the time seemed more aware of his complexity than the myth making surrounding him now. He did write great speeches though.

BaileysforBreakfast · 12/06/2020 07:34

Stephen Yaxley Lennon is an angry, racist cunt. Anyone who thinks his incitement to violence is 'good' either hasn't watched the video or is probably a racist cunt themselves.

By the way, the clip originally posted on YouTube was very much longer. What is left is a short extract and it still beggars belief. (I reported the original to YouTube on the grounds it incited racist hatred and violence and imagine many others did too. Glad to see most of it removed. The short clip remaining was probably posted by one of his swivel-eyed acolytes.)

BashStreetKid · 12/06/2020 07:36

The slave trader was also a philanthropist and did other great things

You can only be a philanthropist if you have money to be philanthropic with. And how did Colston come to have money?

chomalungma · 12/06/2020 07:39

History is complicated.

But I have no doubt that Tommy Robinson and the likes have no issue with some of Churchill's more controversial actions and opinions.

Either they don't know about them because they haven't bothered to find out or they know about them and endorse them.

It's a shame that we have such polarised views of people though - no doubt fuelled by Twitter with its 255 characters which leaves no space for nuanced debate. I haven't really heard many commentators say - that Churchill helped lead us through the war (even though there are questions about his attitudes in the war) but he had other questions to ask about his opinions- and nor have I heard the opposite when people say he expressed racist views but he also helped lead this country through the war.

People just express one opinion or the opposite. As is usual in most debates nowadays. You are either one extreme or the other.

Milicentbystander72 · 12/06/2020 07:40

I live in Bristol. The statue of Colston should have come down years ago, I wish it had been through legal means (people tried) but I'm glad it's gone. Bristol has a riotous history and I'm quite proud of that. It will go in a museum graffiti and all as a document to Colston and also the act of taking it down.

Slave trader statues are one thing. This 'all statues' thing I'm worried is becoming a distraction. Yes, I think new statues should be erected - (perhaps a Mary Seacole statute by the side of a Florence Nightingale one for instance?). But attacking all monuments with a slightly dodgy past is fruitless. How far back to you go? For instance the Romans and Greeks used slaves? Do we destroy the Colluseum? The Elgin Marbles?

I think energies should be put elsewhere, like reforming the school curriculum to include a fuller and broader history. That's just one example.

Tommy Robinson can shout all he wants. He's a twat. I see them as separate issues.

Pogmella · 12/06/2020 08:04

@Milicentbystander72 we could just give the Elgin marbles back and let their rightful owners decide...

AlwaysCheddar · 12/06/2020 08:06

To be fair, there was enough violence last week so it’s no change there.

SuperFurryDoggy · 12/06/2020 08:07

@GrammarTeacher

We wouldn't have got to this place if we were more honest about our national heroes. Most people are complex. Nobody is purely one thing. Churchill led us through the war. But he also did some terrible things. Neither negates the other. Both happened. Both should be acknowledged. Putting specific humans on figurative or literal pedestals is a tad foolish. The mythologising of Churchill by some ignores his frailties and the areas he was wrong and cruel. Tommy Robinson as always, is not needed. And will, intentionally, inflame things for his own reasons. There are several people that need revisiting though. And I awaiting the campaign to remove Cromwell.
This ^
Gilead · 12/06/2020 08:09

All those statues of Hitler, mind you nobody has really heard of him have they...

MaudesMum · 12/06/2020 08:09

Black Lives Matter have just called off the main London march this weekend, because of the risk of far right counter-protests. Which sounds entirely sensible.

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