Parliament Square and cultural balance of power in Britain

It seems that the debate on Cecil Rhodes’ legacy in particular and the legacy left by the British Empire in former colonies in general, has now come to an end; the University of Oxford has very recently declared that the statue will remain (The Guardian 2016). The fiery debate, initiated by Oxford students in the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign has attracted a great deal of popular attention. Public figures as different as Naomi Wolf and Harry Mount have rallied together to plea against the statue’s removal, accusing the students of “suppressing free speech” and of having a “hypersensitive” and “unsophisticated” attitude to the world (Wolf 2016; Mount 2016).