Regardless of one’s opinion of Jimmy Savile, the idea that he should be stripped of his knighthood must surely strike all but the most vindictive and petty minded as being being beyond contempt. The man is dead. David Cameron might just as well force the posthumous abdication of King Henry VIII, responsible for the executions of between 60-70,000 English citizens, or of Queen Mary, also responsible for a large number of gruesome deaths though considerably fewer than her father. Certainly Oliver Cromwell’s statue should be removed from outside the House of Commons. Apart from being a regicide, he was responsible for the death and deportation of 10’s of thousands of Irish Catholics. (Cromwell was of course ‘executed posthumously’, but the favour with which he has been perceived since then is surely misplaced given the current laws affecting religious tolerance and ethnic cleansing.) And then there were those responsible for prolonging the slave trade and Lord Kitchener who introduced the world to concentration camps during the Boer War causing the deaths of “27,927 Boer civilians in concentration camps , plus an unknown number of black Africans (107,000 were interned).” . In fact the list of honoured people who have behaved dishonourably is very long indeed. Continue reading “Beyond contempt!”
Boadicea's Chariot 