Friday, September 10, 2021
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust removed images of him and changed name to the Churchill Fellowship
A charity named after Sir Winston Churchill has provoked fury by rebranding itself blaming his 'views on race' with one irate official declaring today: 'It beggars belief that the man who saved this nation in our darkest hour finds himself cancelled in this way.'
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has removed pictures of the wartime leader from its website and is changing its name to the Churchill Fellowship.
Trustees have agreed to change its name to the Churchill Fellowship and erase him from its website in a new 'woke' storm that has sparked fury towards Julia Weston, the charity's £100,000-a-year chief executive whose face appears repeatedly across the website when Sir Winston's does not.
Loyal volunteers at the trust said it was 'rewriting history' and pointed out the former prime minister has frequently been voted the greatest Briton of all time. One said: 'It beggars belief that the man who saved this nation in our darkest hour finds himself cancelled in this way.'
Ms Weston has been accused of pursuing a 'leftie woke' agenda and announced the changes in an email to staff three weeks ago claiming: 'For some time we have known that our previous name was confusing as it did not reflect what we are about.'
An official statement on the trust's website last night said: 'Today there is controversy about aspects of Sir Winston's life. Many of his views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today, a view that we share'. Left-wing activists have gunned for Sir Winston Churchill for years, accusing him of racism, highlighting his links to Britain's colonial past and even comparing him to Adolf Hitler, the evil fascist he helped defeat. His statue in Parliament Square was also defaced during London's BLM protests.
The charity, which funds academic research and whose chairman is Sir Winston's own grandson Jeremy Soames, was set up using mainly public donations after his death in 1965, amid an outpouring of grief and financial gifts from from a grateful nation who wanted to remember Britain's greatest ever prime minister.
In 1962, Prince Philip, the Queen's late husband, had asked the great war leader how would like to be remembered, and rather than ask for a public memorial, Sir Winston had suggested an academic scheme similar to Oxford's Rhodes Scholarships, but 'available to everybody'. It was set up on the day after his funeral and given Royal Patronage by Her Majesty, who considers him her favourite PM, months later.
It is still funded by donations and legacies from wills, but the majority of its income comes from investments built up with the cash given by thousands of people who loved and supported Sir Winston when the charity was set up 56 years ago.
Left-wing activists have been trying to revise thinking on Churchill recently, with some attacking statues of him and baying for his name to be wiped from buildings.
But there is a growing backlash to the movement as leading historians and his family work tirelessly to maintain his reputation.
Earlier this month the BBC was left red-faced when it was forced to partially uphold a complaint about it saying Churchill's attitude towards the Bengal Famine was racist.
It admitted the News At Ten report fell short of its impartiality guidelines by not offering up alternative views of Churchill's actions on the humanitarian disaster.
The war time leader saw another victory for his legacy in June when a group of 'woke' academics at a Cambridge college to critique Churchill was scrapped.
The lecturers and students at Churchill College is understood to have decided to disband the group after heavy pressure to cancel a series of its events.
Volunteers at The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust were left livid by the charity's attempt to erase Sir Winston.
One told the Sun: 'He was voted, by the people, as the Greatest Briton in a BBC poll in 2002 but is now erased from his own charity by the woke brigade.
'You can't imagine what he would have to say about it all but I'm sure he wouldn't think it was Britain's finest hour.'
Woke campaigners have long had Sir Winston and his legacy in their sights over what they perceive as his racist attitudes and policies.
Controversies surrounding his rule include whether he could have acted more decisively to prevent the Bengal Famine, which left three million dead in India in 1943.
The charge against the former PM is that he viewed the Indians as not worth saving.
His defenders say he was fighting a war at the time and acted swiftly in the circumstances to solve a problem that was not of his making.
The trust was set up after the death of Sir Winston in 1965 to help send British citizens abroad on travel scholarships known as Churchill Fellowships. Trustees include Sir Winston's grandson Jeremy Soames and former Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks.
A statement on the trust's website last night said: 'Today there is controversy about aspects of Sir Winston's life. Many of his views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today, a view that we share.
'At the same time, he is internationally admired for his wartime leadership in saving Britain and the world from Nazism. We acknowledge the many issues and complexities involved on all sides, but do not accept racism of any kind.
'As a forward-looking charity aiming to improve lives throughout the UK, what we take from Sir Winston's example are values for the future: global learning, public service and, above all, a belief in the potential of all individuals.'
Comparing Sir Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler is a 'disgrace', says top historian Sir Anthony Seldon after Left-wing activists claim the wartime leader was a racist
One of Britain's leading contemporary historians, Sir Anthony Seldon, hit back at the 'disgraceful' claim Winston Churchill was no better than Adolf Hitler. Speaking at the Daily Mail's Chalke Valley History Festival in the summer, he added it was particularly worrying that the provocative comments had come from educated quarters.
Sir Anthony, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said: 'Saying Churchill was equivalent to Hitler – I just don't know where to begin. 'I mean, for goodness sake, let's all of us judge a little less and understand a little more.
'Churchill was a very good human being who overwhelmingly did good in this world in standing up to evil. I can't tell you, knowing the Churchill family from my time at Buckingham University, the distress that this stuff causes. It is disgraceful.'
Sir Anthony did not mention who compared the former wartime leader to his Nazi nemesis.
But he may have been referring to Indian writer and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, who once described Churchill as 'really one of the more evil rulers of the 20th Century, only fit to stand in company of the likes of Hitler, Mao and Stalin'.
His comments, in 2017, have recently been followed by Left-wing activists seizing on the chance to trash Churchill's reputation by saying he was racist.
A spokesman for the trust added the foundation remained 'proud of our connection to him and his contribution to saving the world from Nazism' but added: 'At the same time, some of his views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today.'
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Recording Artist Victory Boyd Declines Vaccine for Religious Reasons; NFL Cancels Her National Anthem Opening Day Performance
An appearance by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Victory Boyd to perform the national anthem at the NFL’s Sept. 9 season-opening game in Tampa, Florida, was canceled by the league because she declined for religious reasons to be vaccinated against the CCP virus.
“As I understand that Victory will not be fully vaccinated by the time of the Kickoff game, she would not have been able to comply with the terms of the Game Day Field Access Policy,” Seth Dudowsky, the league’s senior director for media and entertainment events, told Boyd’s father and manager, John Boyd, in an Aug. 31 email made available to The Epoch Times.
“And as a result, we unfortunately will not be able to invite Victoria to perform the national anthem at this year’s Kickoff game,” Dudowsky said.
The defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ home field is Raymond James Stadium, an open-air venue. The 2021 season-opening game is to be played against the Dallas Cowboys.
“The NFL’s Game Day Field Access Policy requires that all individuals accessing the playing field and surrounding sideline areas within the stadium bowl (including individuals involved in game presentation elements such as the singer of the national anthem) be fully vaccinated.
“Under the Policy, ‘fully vaccinated’ means 14 days have passed since the individual received the final dose required in the vaccine sequence, in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This requirement is mandatory and fully complies with the laws applicable to the type of business relationship contemplated here, and we are not in a position to make an exception,” Budowsky told Boyd in the email.
Dudowsky thus ended weeks of negotiations that initially excited both Boyds because, in addition to a $20,000 performance fee, the occasion provided invaluable national television exposure on one of the NFL’s most-watched games other than the Super Bowl.
The NFL also agreed to cover the travel costs of Boyd and her entourage, “as well as all costs, expenses, and fees related to the services of all of Artist’s support personnel in connection with the Performance and all related obligations,” according to a copy of the contract reviewed by The Epoch Times.
The contract was the result of the negotiations but hadn’t yet been officially signed by the parties to it.
The 27-year-old singer-songwriter blends soul and folk music and has twice before sung the national anthem at NFL games. She was a member of the team that produced Kanye West’s Grammy Award-winning “Jesus Is King,” 2020’s top contemporary Christian album.
Boyd was the primary lyricist for the album’s “Closed on Sunday” and “God Is” songs and she made additional contributions to “Water.” Her music is available on Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s Roc Nation label.
Her grounds for declining to be vaccinated are rooted in her Christian faith, she told The Epoch Times:
“The Bible admonishes Christians to appreciate their bodies as being sacred and a temple of the Holy Spirit and to not participate in things that can defile the body or render the body dysfunctional.
“I am in prayer to make sure that the Lord guides me into the right decision concerning receiving an unproven injection with artificial properties that can potentially have a long-term effect on my reproductive health.
“If I want to take the vaccine, the decision will be between myself, my doctor, and my God. At this point, the Spirit of God is leading me to take a stand for freedom of choice.”
She also told The Epoch Times that she worries the NFL decision to cancel her for not being vaccinated may herald more disheartening restrictions throughout the music and entertainment industries.
“Throughout my life, I have overcome many obstacles, but now, I was faced with a new glass ceiling that I couldn’t break through. It feels like we’re going backwards to a familiar place that I thought we had overcome as a country,” Boyd told The Epoch Times.
“To be disqualified because of a discriminatory policy that had nothing to do with my talent made me feel alarmed because of what it implies for not only myself but millions of others,” she said.
Dudowsky declined to respond to The Epoch Times’ email request for comment, referring it instead to Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman. McCarthy declined to say if the NFL places a higher value on ratings and entertainment than on First Amendment rights, including freedom of religion.
John Boyd told The Epoch Times that he’s mystified by the NFL’s adamant refusal to make any accommodation of his daughter’s religious and medical rights.
“My response to the final position of the NFL was one of utter disbelief because I didn’t understand why a single person that was willing to comply with all other NFL COVID protocols and submit verification of a current COVID-19 negative test was not allowed to sing the National Anthem in an open-air stadium. It made no common sense to me that the NFL was not willing to make any accommodation,” he said.
John Boyd added in a separate email that he believed “if accommodations were made for tens of thousands of mask-less, unvaccinated fans screaming over the field and many unvaccinated players running back and forth on the field, surely an accommodation could have been made for a single singer (standing alone distanced from all other people) to sing the National Anthem on the sidelines for only a minute and 45 seconds.”
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There’s a Problem in the Upper Reaches of Our Military
It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country.
In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise. We were told that the terrorist victors share similar goals to ours in a hasty American retreat from Kabul. We were reminded that Afghan refugees (unlike U.S. soldiers) will not be forced to be vaccinated on arrival. Such statements are either untrue or absurd.
On the very day of the attack that killed American troops, the sergeant major of the U.S. Army reminded us in a tweet that diversity is our strength, commemorating not the dead but Women’s Equality Day. If so, then is the opposite of diversity—unity—our weakness? Will such wokeness ensure that we do not abandon the Bagram air base in the middle of the night without opposition?
The chief of staff at the Office of Naval Intelligence warned the ONI’s active duty and retired service members that they must not criticize Biden, their commander in chief, over the Afghanistan fiasco. The office correctly cited prohibitions found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice barring any disrespect shown to senior government leadership.
Indeed, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps was relieved of his command for posting a video accurately blaming military and civilian leadership for the Afghanistan nightmare.
Yet until Jan. 20, retired top brass had constantly smeared their elected commander in chief with impunity.
Recently retired Gen. Michael Hayden retweeted a horrific suggestion that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan, where they presumably would be left to die. Hayden earlier had compared Trump’s border facilities to Nazi death camps.
Other retired high-profile military officials variously called their president an emulator of Nazi tactics, a veritable Mussolini, a liar, and deserving of removal from office sooner than later. None of these retired four-stars faced the sort of repercussions that the Office of Naval Intelligence just warned about.
More than 50 former intelligence officials on the eve of the November election signed a letter suggesting that incriminating emails found on Hunter Biden’s missing laptop might be “Russian disinformation.” They used their stature for political purposes to convince the American people that the story was a lie.
Retired Gen. Joseph Dunford and retired Adm. Mike Mullen recently blasted retired brass who had questioned Biden’s cognitive ability. OK. But they should have issued a similar warning earlier, when the violations of fellow retired officers were even more egregious in election year 2020.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for doing a photo op with Trump, erroneously buying into the narrative that Trump had ordered rioters cleared from Lafayette Square for the staged picture. Worse, he leaked to journalists that he was so angry with Trump that he “considered” resigning.
Think of the irony. If Milley considered a politicized resignation to rebuke Trump over the false charge, then surely he could consider a real resignation after overseeing the worst military disaster of the last half-century in Kabul.
Milley had promised to root out white supremacy from the ranks while recommending that his soldiers read Ibram X. Kendi’s racialist diatribes.
Something is terribly wrong in the ranks of America’s top commanders that reflects something wrong with the country.
The Pentagon needs to stop virtue-signaling about diversity days and culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees. Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram air base was abandoned by night, or why Taliban terrorists are our supposed “partners” in organizing our surrender and escape?
Which general allowed more than $85 billion in American weapons to fall to the Taliban—a sum equal to the price of seven new U.S. aircraft carriers?
Who turned over to the Taliban the lists of Americans and allied Afghans to be evacuated?
Who left behind biometric devices that the Taliban are now using to hunt down our former Afghan friends?
Somehow our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing the trust of the American people—along with the wars it fights abroad.
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Australia debuts 'Orwellian' new app using facial recognition, geolocation to enforce quarantine
The government of South Australia has implemented a new policy requiring Australians to use an app with facial recognition software and geolocation to prove that they are abiding by a 14-day quarantine for travel within the country.
While a conservative expert described the policy as "Orwellian," he told Fox News that it represents an improvement over the current COVID-19 policy. Australians voluntarily choose the quarantine app over alternative quarantine measures.
Australia has banned international travel, unless residents have a permit to leave the country. The country has also severely restricted domestic travel. Residents must spend 14 days in quarantine upon return.
Steven Marshall, premier of the state of South Australia, launched the quarantine app policy in late August. Residents returning from New South Wales and Victoria, two other Australian states, may spend their 14 days in post-travel quarantine at home, rather than in a hotel, so long as they download and use the "Orwellian" app, developed by the South Australian government, ABC News Australia reported.
The app uses geolocation and facial recognition software to track those in quarantine. The app will contact people at random, asking them to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes.
"We don't tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes," Marshall said.
If the resident cannot verify his or her location or identity when requested, the South Australia Health Department will notify the police, who will then conduct an in-person check on the person in quarantine. Marshall said the government will not be storing any of the information provided to the app.
In a statement to Fox News, the government of South Australia noted that registration to use the app for home quarantine is voluntary. Only about 20 people who have applied for the program are using the app in early September.
"The home quarantine app is for a selected cohort of returning South Australians who have applied to be a part of the trial. if successful, it will help safely ease the burden of travel restrictions associated with the pandemic," a government spokesperson told Fox News.
"I think it is accurate to describe it as Orwellian, but one has to understand the context," Robert Carling, an economics senior fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, told Fox News. "It is home quarantine Australian style, and the alternative is hotel quarantine Australian style, under police guard, which people hate."
Carling explained that South Australia is launching a trial home quarantine as a replacement for hotel quarantine, a nationwide policy, "and Australians would be happy to take any form of home quarantine instead of hotel quarantine."
Biden admin recommends COVID-19 booster shotVideo
"Hotel quarantine is much more oppressive than home quarantine, even if the latter comes with Orwellian surveillance features," the CIS scholar explained. Australians have to pay for hotel quarantine themselves, which costs about $2,500 Australian ($1,850 U.S.D.), he estimated.
"Since March 2020 Australians have been banned even from leaving the country unless they can get a special permit to do so," Carling explained. He called this exit ban a "totalitarian, North Korea-style measure. Many other countries have had compulsory quarantine of some kind but they haven't had exit bans."
"International travel cannot be viable with hotel quarantine but it would be with home quarantine," the scholar noted. "Of course, we would prefer no quarantine at all, but that seems to be a bridge too far for our extremely COVID-risk averse governments at this point."
According to Johns Hopkins University data, South Australia has reported zero new cases of COVID-19 since August 23 and zero deaths since April 12. South Australia has the fifth-largest population of Australian states, at 1.8 million. New South Wales, with a population of 8.1 million and the major city of Sydney, represents the majority of new cases and deaths, driving a resurgence in the country.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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