Changing street names will no longer be possible without first holding small-scale referenda under government plans to stop local heritage being wiped out by woke campaign groups.
Roads to be named after Victoria Cross heroes in latest Tory plan for war on woke
Birmingham City Council was accused of ‘virtue signalling’ after it gave streets names including Diversity Grove and Equality Road
23 January 2021 • 9:00pm
Street names unveiled by Birmingham City Council
Credit: Birmingahm City Council/
New roads could be named after military and civilian heroes under plans backed by two Cabinet ministers in the latest salvo of the Conservatives war on woke .
Oliver Dowden, the Culture secretary and Robert Jenrick, the Communities secretary, are backing a plan put forward by a group of Tory backbenchers for new streets to be named in honour of holders of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.
The Housing Secretary has criticised a school in Newark for changing its name
Gladstone, a four-time Prime Minister, was MP in the Nottinghamshire town
His father was a prominent slave trader, owning many Caribbean plantations
Jenrick has also proposed a new law stating statues should not be taken down
He said it was wrong statues are being removed at the hands of the flash mob
Liz Truss’s recent high-profile speech laying out her priorities as Equalities Minister reminded me of an event I attended last year featuring conservative writer Douglas Murray in conversation with the philosopher Roger Scruton. As expected, I agreed with very little of what I heard. But there were a few interesting moments, especially when Scruton raised the topic of Michel Foucault. The postmodernists, he said, have for decades been responsible for undermining morality, culture, value, and, most importantly, “the idea of truth.” Murray, agreeing, responded: “I finally read Foucault last year and, I have to say, I’m so appalled still. Because I’d read about it, I heard about it – I’d always known I sort of instinctively disliked it – but the catastrophe of what he does, this sort of perversion of all life.”
Growing up in Leeds in the 1980s and 1990s, I was struck by the lip service paid by politicians to equality while, in the real world, children from disadvantaged backgrounds were being let down.
At my comprehensive school, we had lessons in racism and sexism, but there was too little effort ensuring everyone had a grasp of maths and English.
Leeds City Council – run by Labour and where Jeremy Corbyn’s former campaign chief Jon Trickett cut his teeth as leader – opposed the introduction of school league tables and anything else that might help children from poor families do better in class.