Oriel College has decided to retain the statue of Cecil Rhodes. Their stated reason is that the government will ensure that there are legal obstacles to removing the statue. In other words, the statue is staying because the government attaches great importance to it. A statue signifies that the person whom this artefact portrays is worthy of respect. And what exactly should Rhodes be respected for ? Theft and murder ? Are these the values by which 'Global Britain' should be known ? Or was extreme violence, because it was undertaken by a British citizen, more excusable than comparable acts undertaken by the Belgians, French or Germans ? Or is the problem that the government simultaneously wants us to respect the imperial past and to forget it ? Or that British history, and everything that it touched, must be good because it is British ? I do not know the answer, but I do not know that the government's policy is not a serious attempt to deepen historical knowledge but to replace it with the deliberate and careful cultivation of selective amnesia.
And, by the way, the person charged with enforcing this policy, and who has expressed great enthusiasm for protecting statues, is the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick. He is a history graduate. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.