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Yes the Melville Monument commemorating Henry Dundas, 1st Vicount Melville as T-R mentioned. He's known for promoting the Scottish Enlightenment and one of the leading Scottish political figures at the time. He was nicknamed 'the Great Tyrant' and 'Uncrowned King of Scotland' due to the level of control he wielded up here. It was privately funded in the 1800s by members of the navy.
His political efforts to delay the abolition of slavery are frequently overlooked, as is his role in the Highland Clearances and expansion of the British Empire in India.
There were grumblings about the statue for years so a plaque was added in 2016 to highlight the controversy surrounding this legacy.
The monument was restored in 2008 but really should have been removed at that point. It's an embarrassment that he still stands high on his pedestal.
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In Ashbourne, locals have taken down a racist black mans head monument that welcomes you to the town... but only to... stop the council from taking it down?
I hope it gets vandalised to fuck. We've had ENOUGH of FUCKING MEETINGS. Take it down. It's not that hard.
And people WONDER why I want to move away from Derbyshire![]()
In Ashbourne, locals have taken down a racist black mans head monument that welcomes you to the town... but only to... stop the council from taking it down?
As it turns out the council don't own the monument so can't actually remove it. The gardens that it is located in are privately owned and thus they'll likely hold ownership of the statue. Still a meeting has been convened to discuss ways to improve the wording of the plaque.![]()
I remember that struck me as quite odd as I visited last year, that a small central PARK like that was privately owned
There must be HUNDREDS of statues all around the UK of people with links to the slave trade, I can think of 3 at least in George Square in Glasgow. And then there is the street names, and it is not only street names but there are building, shopping centres, even whole TOWNS will be named after people etc...it will be interersting to see if any change is brought.
There must be HUNDREDS of statues all around the UK of people with links to the slave trade, I can think of 3 at least in George Square in Glasgow. And then there is the street names, and it is not only street names but there are building, shopping centres, even whole TOWNS will be named after people etc...it will be interersting to see if any change is brought.
Well the Colston statue is gone. The Colston Hall (main concert venue) which had already signalled intent to change name has now decided to bring that forward to autumn. The two schools here named after him have both said they are 'reconsidering' the name - which they both did a couple of years ago, but ended up deciding to stick with it.
That leaves the road name the statue stood on, the office block behind it, and the almshouses around the corner. Change is coming.
The BBC have now removed Little Britain and Come Fly with Me from all streaming services. "Times have changed".
I'll flog them my Little Britain Series 1 DVD for £500 if they want. Is there a special gammon eBay?
Facebook marketplace.
The top rated comment on that story in the DM is "FFS 2020 gets worse every day".
REALLY?
“This country is turning into a dictatorship”
“How long before mention of the word BLACK will be banned”
“Country is a laughing stock, take me back to the 80s when people had common sense”
Have Matt Lucas and David Walliams said anything?
Lucas, set to be the new host of Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, has previously expressed regret about some of the characters in the show. In a 2017 interview with the Big Issue, he said it was “lazy” to “get a laugh just by playing black characters”.
“If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters,” he said. “Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now.”
The pair most recently revived the show, which began on radio in 2000, for a short appearance on the BBC’s Big Night In. They also did a radio special in 2019. However, Walliams agreed with his co-creator, that while Little Britain may return again, it has to move with the times, saying he would “definitely do it differently” now.
Sorry I should have put that in the other thread
A fb acquaintance of mine has gone off on a rant about the possible removal of statutes;
black people aren’t the only ones to be treated badly, the slave trade was bad, but we abolished it, go after the countries that still have it. Shall we get rid of all the concentration camps in Eastern Europe because they were built with slave labour? Do we destroy Italy because it was built by British slaves stolen by the romans? You can’t put that argument, every country in the world has used slaves and there are countries still using slaves. Are you going to go after the African countries who actually sold their own people because the money was desired? No, if you want to claim the slave trade then you need to learn about the slave trade. England was the first country abolish it and actively went after countries that didn’t. I am fed up with people demanding that history be removed because they don’t like it. That isn’t how life works, as a historian I am offended that people are trying to erase it and I will fight to preserve it. If you are so offended by these statues why don’t you name me a few? Because let’s be honest you have walked passed them and never taken any notice, you are only offended now because someone has told you to be