{"id":68451,"date":"2021-06-10T06:43:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T10:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=68451"},"modified":"2021-06-10T06:43:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T10:43:33","slug":"oxford-students-remove-queens-portrait-from-college-common-room-over-colonial-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=68451","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Students Remove Queen’s Portrait From College Common Room Over “Colonial History”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lily Zhou via
\nThe Epoch Times<\/p>\n

A portrait of the Queen was removed from an Oxford college common room\u00a0because the monarch represents \u201crecent colonial history.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n

Political website\u00a0Guido Fawkes<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday reported that a student committee from the Middle Common Room (MCR) at Magdalen College, Oxford University voted to remove the portrait of\u00a0Queen Elizabeth II<\/a>\u00a0by a \u201csubstantial\u201d margin, because\u00a0\u201cfor some students depictions of the monarch and the British monarchy represent recent colonial history.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report quoted meeting minutes saying that some students argued that\u00a0\u201cpatriotism and colonialism are not really separable,\u201d and\u00a0the proposal is not about \u201ccancelling\u201d the Queen, but about \u201cmaking people feel welcome,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>while another said that \u201ceffectively \u2018cancelling\u2019 the Queen and brandishing her a symbol of colonialism\u201d would damage the reputation of the college and its students, and that a common room that doesn\u2019t respect the cultural heritage of all nations \u201ccannot claim to be inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the removal of\u00a0 the portrait is \u201csimply absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOxford University students removing a picture of the Queen is simply absurd,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Williamson wrote on Twitter on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the Head of State and a symbol of what is best about the UK. During her long reign she has worked tirelessly to promote British values of tolerance, inclusivity & respect around the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a string of\u00a0tweets<\/a>, Dinah Rose, the president of\u00a0Magdalen College, said the MCR is a student organisation that makes its own decisions and doesn\u2019t represent the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Middle Common Room is an organisation of graduate students. They don\u2019t represent the College,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, in about 2013, they bought a print of a photo of the Queen to decorate their common room. They recently voted to take it down. Both of these decisions are their own to take, not the College\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagdalen strongly supports free speech and political debate, and the MCR\u2019S right to autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they\u2019ll vote to put it up again, maybe they won\u2019t. Meanwhile, the photo will be safely stored.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rose said that college staff have been receiving \u201cobscene and threatening messages\u201d after the story broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a student is about more than studying. It\u2019s about exploring and debating ideas. It\u2019s sometimes about provoking the older generation. Looks like that isn\u2019t so hard to do these days,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you are one of the people currently sending obscene and threatening messages to the College staff, you might consider pausing, and asking yourself whether that is really the best way to show your respect for the Queen. Or whether she\u2019d be more likely to support the traditions of free debate and democratic decision-making that we are keeping alive at Magdalen.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked to comment on the incident, Housing, Communities, and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick, a self-professed fan of the Queen who has her portrait in his office, told the BBC that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t want anyone to disrespect her out of ignorance in this way,\u201d but he doesn\u2019t think \u201cwe should waste too much time\u201d on student union politics.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/oxford-students-remove-queens-portrait-from-college-common-room-over-colonial-history_3850885.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}