A panel at Cambridge's Churchill College has said that Winston Churchill was a white supremacist and had led an empire 'worse than the Nazis'.
Panellists for the 'Racial Consequences of Mr Churchill' talk accused the former Prime Minister of racism and complicity in the Bengal Famine which killed three million Indians while discussing his legacy, reported The Telegraph.
Interestingly, the Churchill College at Cambridge was established with the help of the leader in 1958.
The group chaired by college fellow Prof Priyamvada Gopala was branded biased before the event began for omitting defenders of the wartime leader.
The Empire Churchill led against Nazi Germany in the Second World War was branded morally poorer than the Third Reich, and the view that a virtuous Britain defeated the genocidal state was deemed a “problematic narrative”, observed the panellists.
Professor Kehinde Andrews, author of The Psychosis of Whiteness, said Churchill was: “The perfect embodiment of white supremacy”.
He claimed that this supremacist view dominated the politics of the day, and currently dominates in post-Imperial Britain.
Fellow panellist Dr Onyeka Nubia noted that Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples made use of the language of white supremacy through the veiled terms “English Speaking Peoples” and “Anglo-Saxon”, the newspaper report said.
Dr Madhusree Mukerjee argued that the prime minister viewed Indians as “rabbits”, and his policies had a direct role in the Bengal Famine of 1943.
"Militarism is the core of the British identity, and statues celebrating this should be taken down. It was the Soviets who defeated the Nazis and the Americans who defeated the Japanese," she said.
Historian Dr Zareer Masani wrote to the Cambridge College before the event warning that its panel lacked historical expertise and aimed only to “vilify” Churchill.
Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, described the panels’ claims as “libels” that are “entirely factually incorrect”.
“If the Japanese had captured India in WW2 would have led to perhaps tens of millions of deaths if their record elsewhere was comparable. Churchill did his best in the exigencies of wartime to alleviate the Bengal Famine. In his political career he fought again and again against slavery and for the rights of non-whites within the British Empire. Churchill was moreover instrumental in destroying the worst racist in history, Adolf Hitler," he said.
According to the College, the event was a panel discussion not a debate, and intended as one in a series of events on the leader’s legacy.
A former Hertfordshire officer resigned before his misconduct ruling
‘Former Hertfordshire police officer made racist slurs against Asians'
A FORMER Hertfordshire police officer made racist comments to colleagues on multiple occasions, a misconduct panel has found.
PC Oliver Gobey, who resigned as an officer on the morning of the misconduct hearing, directed racist comments at people of Asian descent on two separate occasions.
In the first incident, he directed a “racially motivated” comment at a police sergeant to suggest they had been recruited after 9/11 because they were Asian.
Gobey was immediately challenged by PC Wallace, an “experienced officer” who had been a tutor constable for twenty years.
In a second incident, Gobey was in a police vehicle in Hitchin town centre with three colleagues. A man of Asian descent and his friends approached the officers and spoke to Wallace. The man said he was from Birmingham and asked for recommendations on places to visit.
After the man had walked away, Gobey said: “Or you have come down here to escape the honour-based violence you have caused.”Gobey was again challenged by Wallace. Gobey denied making the racist comments, but the panel concluded on the balance of probabilities that both incidents had taken place.
The panel’s report said: “They were discriminatory comments and they were his own. They were unprovoked. No one encouraged him.”
The panel also concluded that Gobey “chose to lie” about a business interest. He repeatedly failed to submit a proper application to continue part-time work for a private ambulance service and voluntary work for St John Ambulance, but continued with the latter regardless.
He also told a supervisor his business interest application had been successful, when it had not been.
In a fourth incident, Gobey “deliberately typed in random numbers” when assigned to work in the Resource Management Unit (RMU).
His figures, which were found to be wrong, came after Gobey “gave the impression to his colleagues that the work in RMY was ‘beneath’ him”.
While working there, he was heard “swearing about the work”. He was “short-tempered and ‘snappy’.” The panel’s report said: “The compilation of the figures … were far from being a simple administrative matter.
“It was essential operational information required by senior officers to decide how scarce resources would be deployed in the coming days.”
The panel found all the allegations against Gobey to be proven on the balance of probabilities, and concluded that they amounted to “serious gross misconduct” that would have led to him being sacked without notice if he had not resigned. He has also been added to the College of Policing barred list.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)