Winston Churchill monument in London boarded up, Fawlty Towers episode taken off streaming site
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Workers have boarded up a statue of Sir Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph in central London ahead of weekend protests.
Though the majority of protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been peaceful, statues around the country have been targeted.
Often topping lists of “the greatest Britons”, Churchill is honoured with numerous monuments, the most famous located in London’s Parliament Square.
His statue was boarded up overnight for its own protection after protesters pushed a monument of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol Harbour on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was “absurd and shameful” that a statue of Winston Churchill was at risk of attack by protesters, some of whom daubed the words “was a racist” at an earlier anti-racism demonstration.
“It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protesters,” the British leader wrote on Twitter.
“Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial. We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history,” he said, calling on people to avoid protests planned this weekend.
On Thursday evening, a tower block sign bearing the slave trader’s name in the city was also removed.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London have said they will remove two statues linked to slavery in response to anti-racism protests across the UK.
The NHS foundation trust which runs the hospitals said monuments of Thomas Guy and Sir Robert Clayton will be moved out of public view.
Thomas Guy, who founded Guy’s hospital in the 18th century, had shares in the South Sea Company which was involved in the slave trade.
Sir Robert Clayton, who was president of St Thomas’ hospital in the 17th century, was a banker connected to the Royal African Company which shipped slaves across the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, one of the most famous episodes of 1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers has been removed from a streaming service because it has “racial slurs”.
UKTV, which is BBC-owned, said it had temporarily made Fawlty Towers episode The Germans unavailable while it carries out a review.
The episode, first aired in 1975, showed hotel owner Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, goose-stepping while shouting “don’t mention the war” in front of a group of German tourists.
It also has scenes where Major Gowen uses offensive language when talking about the West Indies cricket team which had already been cut by some broadcasters, according to reports.
A UKTV spokesman said: “UKTV has temporarily removed an episode of Fawlty Towers, The Germans, from Gold’s Box Set.
“The episode contains racial slurs so we are taking the episode down while we review it. We regularly review older content to ensure it meets audience expectations and are particularly aware of the impact of outdated language.
It comes amid protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement which began in the US but have spread around the world.
The protests were prompted by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed when a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
