David Cox doesn’t think Nelson Mandela deserves to be honoured with a statue in Parliament Square.
Yesterday a crowd of thousands showed their profound disagreement as they crammed into the square to watch the unveiling of the statue.
On a plot of land usually relegated to the role of a glorified roundabout Londoners and visitors joined forces to witness a moment in history.
After emotional speeches from Lord Attenborough, Wendy Woods, Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone the magic of the day was crowned with an inspirational, statesmanlike speech from Mr Mandela himself.
Cox’s Comment is Free article says “the efforts of white South African campaigners against apartheid, like Donald Woods, were surely more noteworthy” but opts not to record the fact that the inspiration for the statue came from Woods.
Mandela’s calm, measured and dignified behaviour since his release from prison is a distillation of all that’s good in humankind. In a week which was seen calls for greater recognition of black role models the question has to be: if Mandela isn’t worthy of this honour who is?
