On an East Croydon Station platform last week I heard a staff member help a chap born in Canada, who had moved to New Zealand, helped to pronounce Tulse Hill. He was using tul se Hill.

reminds me of this Two Ronnies sketch.

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The left hate the pale and the stale of the great and the good.

The problem the left have in rewriting history is they want to honour people of their own ilk e.g. non white or gay or trans, whatever etc.

The reality is very few of these people merit a mention beyond their demographic, Oscar Wilde global gay icon would be one of the exceptions.

Well if you look hard enough you are bound to find a member of the alphabet soup who lived in the UK but frankly it's not enough.

Mary Secole is one example a kind black lady who sold refreshments and alcohol to soldiers on the front line in the Crimea. To mention her in the same breath as Florence Nightingale a woman who founded modern nursing world wide is laughable.

However she even has a statue outside the St Thomas's which is massively linked to FN and not her. Now it is true that as a black woman she was denied opportunities that were afforded FN and the same could be said for many of the other obscure heroes of the left. However the point is that these people through no fault of their own did not leave a mark in history but just because they tick a certain box they are bigged up.

Replacing Gladstone with Diane Abbott is like comparing an elephant and an ant.

Edited by Badger11 (17 Apr 2022 11.54am)

That will be Mary Seacole then, the first nurse practitioner around whom there is much debate. A contemporary of Florence Nightingale.

Comparing Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale’s achievements, it is fair to say that Florence Nightingale has left a more obvious impression and more concrete legacy on modern nursing. She introduced modern notions and standards of nursing; she reduced the death rate of wounded soldiers in the Crimean War and she founded a professional school of nursing. Florence Nightingale, however, came from a well off background with many influential friends, which made it easier for her to make things happen. Her friend’s husband, Sidney Herbert was Minister of War at the time.

Bent Council (Sorry Brent) to rename William Gladstone park after Diane Abbott.

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Gladstone was a giant of the Victorian era and has a worldwide reputation. He was a great social reformer unfortunately he was also pale and stale which is not good enough for the commissars of Bent Council.

The council asked school children to suggest an alternate name for the park and they came up with the policial giant Diane Abbott (I'm surprised they didn't suggest Spongebob Square Pants).

The council would have been better off explaining to the children who Gladstone was and why the park was deservedly named after him.