Edmund Burke, a British politician and opponent of slavery who’s widely considered one of the founding fathers of conservatism, has been placed by UK legislators on a BLM-inspired shaming list.
This list is for historical individuals with alleged involvement in the slave trade.
The Woke Brigade
A gathering of MPs tasked with evaluating the artwork in construction to see if it adheres to woke progressive benchmarks are currently reviewing Edmund Burke’s monuments and paintings for permanent removal from the Westminster Palace.
This comes despite the fact he never owned slaves and was vehemently opposed to the horrible practice.
The Times of London reported since his brother benefited from slave farms in the Caribbean, the founder of conservative ideology has been included on the list accordingly. Nevertheless, there is no indication Burke personally gained anything.
The review will aim to change Parliament’s collection of art to becoming “more representational of diversity,” which was inspired by the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in Britain in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd in America.
The advisory group on artwork in the Commons headed by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, which is headed by Conservative MP Dean Russell, is conducting the cross-party study.
Statue of philosopher Edmund Burke added to slavery list of shame by Parliamentary committee.
This despite being an abolitionist but “because his younger brother made money from Caribbean plantations.”
Do MPs have no real problems to spend their time on?https://t.co/PZV7VRe56U
— Save Our Statues (@_SaveOurStatues) August 24, 2022
Burke’s participation has drawn criticism on the basis of history. A Cambridge lecturer of political theory, Richard Bourke, called Burke’s presence on the list “ridiculous.”
“The claim that Burke supported the slave trade is absurd. He opposed slavery from the moment his opinions were first documented. He described it to The Telegraph as being awful.”
“Abolitionism is a little trickier to practice. In the late 1780s, he backed quick abolition, but he later changed his mind after the French Revolution. He believed the time was inappropriate.”
The Details
“Burke generally opposed slavery, but did not call for its outright abolition. He suggested reducing the barbarisms of the business itself before outlawing it.”
“Given these complications, some critics draw the conclusion he supported the trade because he had a plan to change it. Ideology has no boundaries,” he said.
“Rousseau’s attack on society in the name of “nature” exemplifies what to me is the root error of liberalism in all its forms, namely, the inability to accept, or even to perceive, the inherited forms of social knowledge.”- @Scruton_Quotes https://t.co/PScFn984D1
— Edmund Burke (@devoffice) August 26, 2022
Warren Hastings, the administrator of Bengal, had been the target of Burke’s effort to have him removed from office, due to colonial injustice.
Burke was a British legislator of Irish descent who began serving in Parliament as a Whig in 1766. His works have since had a major influence on political conservatism, particularly in the United States.
The booklet Observations on the Revolution in France, published in 1790 by Burke, is possibly the work for which he is most remembered.
In his 1932 article Stability in Politics, British wartime commander Sir Winston Churchill praised Burke as a conservative hero and for being the “foremost prophet of freedom and on the other as the venerable advocate of authority.”
This article appeared in Powerhouse News and has been published here with permission.
