Churchill Statue 'May Have To Be Put In Museum', Says Granddaughter

[appalachiablue]

Source: BBC News

(5 hrs. ago). Winston Churchill may have to be put in a museum to protect it if demonstrations continue, his granddaughter has said. Emma Soames told the BBC the war-time prime minister was a "complex man" but he was considered a hero by millions.

She said she was "shocked" to see the monument in London's Parliament Square boarded up, although she said she understood why this was necessary. It came after protesters daubed "was a racist" on the statue last weekend.

Ms Soames said it was "extraordinarily sad that my grandfather, who was such a unifying figure in this country, appears to have become a sort of icon through being controversial." "We've come to this place where history is viewed only entirely through the prism of the present," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme...

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53033550

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- The last weekend the statue of Winston Churchill was spray-painted with the words, "was a racist."

[yaesu]

1. many "heros" including our own seem to have been on the wrong side of history when it comes to race

relations and other discrimination's. Imho we shouldn't destroy their legacy but remember it, learn from it, bring it all out in the open, the good, the bad and the ugly. As far as statues go museums might be the best answer but only if the whole story is told, nothing white washed.

[Politicub]

10. Some statues should go in museums because they contribute something to

art or society. Or they may be ancient artifacts.

Some art is good but most is garbage. Just because something is placed on a pedestal does not make it worthy of a museum display.

I think more art is being made from the sculptures in their destruction, though it is temporal. We are talking about the figures represented now. Before they were mere ornamentation. They have transformed into props as part of the cultural moment.

I don’t have an opinion one way or another about Churchill. My knowledge of him is from the mythology surrounding him rather than history.

[oldsoftie]

2. People are turning into the damn Taliban.

Churchill was a huge part of keeping all of the British people motivated to win. And also the Allies as a whole.
This kind of nonsense is going to end up backfiring
I saw a picture yesterday of people defacing a statue of one of the first ABOLITIONISTS; Matthias Baldwin. Who established one of the first schools for black children. idiots.

[Joinfortmill]

3. Context, people, context.

[Warpy]

4. That's the best place for most of this stuff.

The pigeons will be disappointed, but honestly, they're all mixed bags. Churchill inspired a nation to survive Spartan rationing, overwork, and heavy bombardment and for that he needs to be remembered. He also made sure his own beef, brandy and cigars were supplied for the duration and his conservative policies before the war harmed the country. And it should never be forgotten that he failed to supply protection to the Lusitania in WWI when intelligence knew there was a U boat patrolling its route. His views on race were abominable.

He's had a good run out in public, but it might be time to retire him to a museum, complete with all his warts.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. You can hide history, and hide from it

but you can't erase it, and you can't change it.

Understanding is what makes us able to learn and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes.

[oasis]

6. Churchill, Gen. Eisenhower and Russian Gen. Zhukov stopped Hitler.

That was the most significant positive accomplishment in world history.

[inanna]

8. Well said. Thank you.

n/t

[DBoon]

11. Without Churchill, there would not have been a Labour government after the war

[generalbetrayus]

7. Even though I grew up in and near by statue central, Washington, D.C.,

I'm not a huge fan of statues, in general, but maybe there can be a distinction drawn between statues of people who were racist but were being HONORED for some other reason, and people who were honored for BEING racist.

[TristanIsolde]

9. Churchill was incredibely racist towards Indians

That is a historical fact. he belongs in a museum

[RobinA]

14. Soooo...

people are incapable of the notion that people can do good and bad things in their lifetime and be honored for the good?

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Nigel Hamilton's FDR at War Trilogy

shows how FDR won the war by giving our Allies few choices. Churchill is rightly considered a hero and great war leader, but his WWII blunders were abundant, usually surrounding surgical invasions that failed due to insufficient force and leadership, from eastern Mediterranean to Dunkirk to Dieppe to Rome. FDR picked Eisenhower, gave Allied troops experience in North Africa, and was responsible for the timing, magnitude, and materiel for Overlord. Stalin was tired of waiting too, being granted ordinance but no second front for 2 years as the final invasion was prepped. Hitler was defeated by strategy.

Interesting is a book on subversive tactics, "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" which documents the surgical precision with which he encouraged, funded, and deployed specialty weaponry such as limpet grenades manufactured in impromptu factories. Even some of the more traditional British military were opposed to them, but some considerable argument is made that they turned the tide on D-Day - by stopping Nazi trains in their tracks by mucking up axle gearing with injected graphite.

[Steelrolled]

13. I'm not sure a museum is such a good idea

The museum would be asking for trouble, by displaying the Churchill statue. And museums, being what they are, are chock full of offensive items from the past (British museums especially). It all sounds very risky.

Perhaps we need a memory hole. Do they make them large enough to swallow a statue?