'If the Left has its way, we will be forced to renounce our past.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8408587/If-Left-way-forced-renounce-past-no-one-fighting-back.html  Quoting:

Despite there being a Conservative Prime Minister in No 10, the Left continues its long march through our institutions. It sets the cultural agenda. The great evil of slavery is being used to mount an assault on Britain’s past, and subvert the sense of national identity of many people. First we had the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol on Sunday by a well-orchestrated mob. Although I’m sure most of those who have taken part in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations are motivated by idealism, I suspect they are being manipulated by more calculating people . . .

What really made me shiver was the announcement that Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, is setting up a new commission ‘for diversity in the public realm’, which will review the capital’s landmarks, including street names, to ensure they ‘suitably reflect its diversity’. No less alarming was the news that 130 Labour councils in the country will examine the ‘appropriateness’ of monuments. Every statue will be scrutinised for links to slavery and plantation owners . . .

Brace yourself for large-scale changes. They won’t be proposing more maypole dancing. Mr Khan says: ‘Our capital’s diversity is our greatest strength, yet our statues, road names and public spaces reflect a bygone era.’ In other words, if the Left gets its way, the past will be reconfigured so that monuments and names reflecting Britain’s imperial past will be removed, and where possible replaced by more ‘relevant’ heroes of whom Mr Khan and his commissars approve . . .

Slavery is in the foothills of the ambitions of many on the Left. What they want is a wholesale rejection of Britain’s past, and of the British Empire in particular. Anti-colonialist academics queue up on the BBC to denounce it . . .

Of course slavery was a great sin, though we shouldn’t forget that some African tribes, such as the Ashanti in what later became Ghana, profited from it. Moreover, Britain abolished it earlier than America and other European empires. Between 1808 and 1860, the Royal Navy freed an estimated 150,000 slaves who were being shipped across the Atlantic. Possibly 20,000 sailors died in this noble endeavour. I wonder how many Black Lives Matter marchers know that. The truth about the British Empire is more complex than its detractors would have us believe. Against the undeniable excesses and cruelties, we should weigh the introduction of parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, modern medicine and Christianity.

The past is seldom divided neatly into goodies and baddies. But that is exactly the version of history which the Left wants us to accept — with the British exclusively playing the role of baddies. Our heroes who defended this country against foreign powers are in danger of being brought down in ignominy. Toppling a monument is not chiefly a matter of destroying a physical object. Its real purpose is to ruin a reputation — and re-write history.

The statue of Sir Francis Drake — persecutor of the Spanish, great explorer, romantic icon of the 1588 Spanish Armada and all-round rogue — is being targeted in Plymouth because he sold slaves. Horatio Nelson, who arguably saved this country from French invasion, and gave up his life, stands perilously on his column in Trafalgar Square. His crime is to have defended his slave-owning friends in Parliament some years before the trading of slaves was abolished in the British Empire in 1807. Not a good thing for him to have done. But he was still a hero.

If the Left has its way, we will be forced to renounce our past, and hang our heads in shame. New figures will be introduced for us to admire. Our sense of national identity will be undermined. It has been done before, in other countries. Does the decent silent majority want such an outcome? Of course not. But although we have a Tory government in power — and a highly educated Prime Minister, perfectly aware of what is going on — almost no one is fighting back.

I don't think that many of the protesters really know what they are protesting about.
There is so much anger and emotion mixed into these events. I am sorry to see that it has spread to the UK. I thought at first it was an American issue.
These protests are supposed to be peaceful, but in reality they are not. It is truly frightening what is happening in the world these days.
It seems that we have gone directly from a global pandemic to race riots, within a couple of months!

Outside of City Hall in Philadelphia, stupid criminals vandalized a statue of Matthias Baldwin.  Matthias was an abolitionist. A man that fought to free the slaves.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/park-volunteer-outraged-over-vandalism-of-monument-to-philadelphia-abolitionist-he-was-blm-before-there-was-a-slogan/

Some people obviously enjoy behaving self-righteously and will do so with the slightest reason, hence the importing of American political issues into Britain which don't really fit. Others will just cause trouble at any excuse.

I think a lot of leftists just want to remove statues because they represent traditional values and identities.

You might find this hard to believe. It's beyond snowflakery:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8424585/Oxford-University-students-impacted-George-Floyds-death-apply-mitigating-circumstances.html

Yeah it is hard to believe that students at Oxford are so deeply affected by what is going on here in America. Our Universities are filled with snowflakes. They are very particular about who they accept and look through applicants social media to be sure that potential students fit the mold.