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Attempts To Cancel Glasgow's David Livingstone Statue Are 'Irrational' And 'Unhinged'

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naomi24 | 09:23 Fri 01st Apr 2022 | News
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So says Dr Stuart Waiton from Abertay University who said that the entire exercise was fuelled by "virtue signalling" and that it was time to stop doing it.

Renowned anti-slavery hero David Livingstone, who was a Christian missionary and is seen as a hero worldwide after describing slavery as the "greatest meanness ever perpetrated", was condemned in an audit because he once worked as a spinner in a mill using West Indian Cotton and a perceived 'defence' of cotton masters.

In a review conducted by Glasgow City Council, eight statues were condemned for being directly linked to slavery, while 62 Glasgow streets and locations were found to have a ‘direct’ or ‘associational’ connections to Atlantic slavery.

Glasgow City Council will now reflect on the findings of the report before deciding what to do next, with SNP leader Susan Aitken already demanding the city apologise for these links.

An Edinburgh slavery review consultation was also held last year which was described by leading academics as a "farce."

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/attempts-cancel-glasgows-david-livingstone-26595318

Is the worm turning? I hope so.
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I hope so. How ridiculous.
Ding ding - Round Two.

The statue is not being cancelled. Just the Daily Express waving a red flag to its impressionable readership, and scoring again.
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Sorry, Gromit. Beneath your intellect, eh?

Try The Times.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dr-livingstones-cancelled-i-presume-dddp2357t
//was condemned in an audit because he once worked as a spinner in a mill using West Indian Cotton//
do they not see how ludicrous that statement is?
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Here is the offending auit.

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=56499&p=0

Please note that it has only just come out, and nothing has been cancelled, renamed, or excised from history because of it.
I once worked in a cotton mill. Maybe others on here did so too. I'm sure everyone these days would condemn the slave trade for the abomination that it was. I don't agree with all the apologies though. What happened was dreadful. No doubt about that, but apologising won't change anything. These things are just perpetuated by the likes of BLM who enjoy conveying the victimhood that they've invented.
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You missed the word 'Attempts'.
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^That to Gromit.
This is everything the audit says about Livingstone.

// David Livingstone, famous missionary explorer, was employed in Blantyre Mill, owned by Henry Monteith, who was in a partnership with two Glasgow-West India merchants in the 1810s. Blantyre Mill paid relatively high wages to its workforce; including Livingstone from 1823 and especially after 1832 when he was promoted to a cotton-spinner which funded his education.

David Livingstone Monument (Cathedral Square)482
David Livingstone (1813-1873), famous missionary explorer, was born in Blantyre and worked in Blantyre Mill which was owned by Henry Monteith, one of Glasgow’s most important cotton manufacturers. From 1816, Monteith was in a partnership with two Glasgow West India merchants; Adam Bogle and Frances Garden.483 It is likely that when Livingstone commenced work in the mill as a ‘piecer’ in 1823 and spinner in 1832, the cotton was sourced from the West Indies. In one of his most famous works, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, Livingstone described how the high remuneration allowed him to undertake study at the Andersonian (now the University of Strathclyde) and Old College (now the University of Glasgow).484 After sixteen years in London and Africa, Livingstone returned to Blantyre mill in 31 December 1856. He condemned slavery as the ‘greatest meanness ever perpetrated’ and those who expropriated the labour of others for profit were the ‘meanest set upon on earth’. But Livingstone mounted a strong defence of cotton masters, whom he regarded as paternalistic and benevolent.485 Perhaps this was understandable: Livingstone’s rise was based upon the high wages provided by Scottish cotton manufacturing which was itself dependent upon Atlantic slavery economies. //

There is no recommendation to tear down the monument. There is no mention of Glasgow disowning him. He is NOT being cancelled.
At best the link is extremely tenuous.
MAABOF!
They don’t want to cancel the Livingstone monument - they want to steal it.

They plan to open Glasgow Slavery museum. The audit (intentionally or not) is a wish list of exhibits for the museum.

// GLASGOW’S at-risk Egyptian Halls should become Scotland’s museum of slavery, according to a public vote.
Now it has been earmarked as a site for a possible museum of slavery following an architecture competition and public vote.
The proposal was made by Gavin Fraser of Polmont, who said the halls “represent a culture and a period in history synonymous with slavery and its profits”. He added: “When we walk around Glasgow, not so far from Union Street, we can see many remnants of Glasgow’s grisly slave-related history: the Merchant City, Virginia Street and Jamaica Street to name but a few.
“But beyond this contextual reference to slavery, we see the remnants of its lucrative life within Glasgow’s fine buildings from the 19th century ... with nothing to commemorate or recognise this history.”

Zandra Yeaman, of the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), said: “It’s particularly heartening to know that the hundreds of people who took part in the public vote also support this initiative.
“CRER has been campaigning for this for over a decade now, and even the Scottish Parliament have now shown their support. Community involvement and participation will be crucial to ensure the context and content of the museum credibly reflects the lives, origins and experiences of Black minority ethnic people in Scotland, and the task ahead is huge. //
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Gromit. They want to take it down.
// They want to take it down //

Nope. The report doesn’t recommend that.

They might want to put it in their museum, where it will be safe.
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Gromit, They're not taking it down to keep it safe - and they're not putting it in a museum without taking it down. That really would be smart! Do give over for goodness sake!
Here is the audit again.

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=56499&p=0

Show me where it recommends dismantling the monument.
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Gromit, I am not going to trail through 117 pages. The newspapers are reporting similar stories - but if you think you know better so be it.
The story is just NOT true.
The right wing press Express/Times/Mail have all misrepresented the Audit.
You can believe what you are being fed, and ignore the source material.
But I will call it BS.
Come on gromit, it is April the 1st ;)
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Gromit, //The right wing press Express/Times/Mail have all misrepresented the Audit. //

And Dr Stuart Waiton and other academics have misrepresented it too. Got to wonder what they're talking about then.

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