Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the creation of a commission on racial inequality, calling for tackling the "substance" of racism and not symbols in reference to recent degradations of statues on the margins of anti-racist protests.
“We have to tackle the substance of the problem, not the symbols. We must approach the present, not try to rewrite the past - and that means that we cannot and must not allow ourselves to be drawn into an endless debate over which well-known historical figure is sufficiently pure or politically correct to remain visible. of the public, "the conservative leader wrote in a column to The Telegraph on Monday.
Acknowledging that "more must be done", he announced the establishment of a commission to examine "all aspects of inequality" in employment, health and even university studies.
"Black people don't play the victims"
On television, Boris Johnson said he wanted to "change the discourse so that we stop this feeling of victimization and discrimination", attracting the wrath of the opposition. "Black people do not play the victims, as Boris indicates, they protest precisely because the time for studying is over and now is the time for action," protested David Lammy, responsible for questions of justice within Labor. "It is deeply disturbing - and frankly immature - that the UK is still debating whether racism really exists."
The death of George Floyd, a black man asphyxiated by a white police officer in the United States, was followed by major anti-racist protests in the United Kingdom.
Clashes erupted in London on Saturday between police and right-wing protesters claiming to "protect" monuments from acts of vandalism. The police arrested 113 people. In the Telegraph , Boris Johnson found "utterly absurd that groups of far-right thugs and troublemakers converged in London to protect the statue of Winston Churchill."
The monument had been vandalized the previous weekend on the sidelines of anti-racism demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd. The inscription "was a racist" was tagged under the name of the conservative leader, accused of having made racist remarks, in particular against the Indians. The statue has since been protected by a metal box.
Churchill "was a hero," wrote Boris Johnson. "I will resist with all my might any attempt to remove this statue from Parliament Square and the sooner we can remove the protection that surrounds it, the better."
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Rather than unbolting statues, such as that of the slave trader Edward Colston, torn from its pedestal by anti-racist activists in Bristol (south-west England), Boris Johnson proposed to "build more and to celebrate the people who, according to our generation, deserve a monument ”.
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