Taking 'The sins of the fathers' to the extreme....

...The Sunday Telegraph reports that the British Library is to add the poet Ted Hughes to a dossier on links to slavery and colonialism as part of its efforts to become actively anti-racist.

Jeez!! The paper says that curators have identified an ancestor born in 1592 whose family were "deeply involved" in establishing colonies in North America.

The poet's biographer Sir Jonathan Bate tells the paper it is "ridiculous" to tar Mr Hughes with a slave trade connection on the basis of such a distant relative."

Jeez!! Raising awareness of past aberrations is one thing, but it is getting a little out of hand when we start tracing an individual's connections to the slave trade back to distant relatives from hundreds of years ago.

Why stop there? We might as well go all the way back to the Roman occupation of Britannica with fact that slavery was endemic in their 'civilisation' as with many others (including Vikings) who often captured and enslaved hostages or sold them for ransom in that period of history.

Many UK born people are descended from Romans and around 6% of Brits have Viking ancestry so many of us could be connected in some way and not just as illegitimate offspring of slaves ..

The focus should be more about eradicating modern day slavery which still exists throughout the World and not focusing on historical figures who lived to a different set of rules and morals. British Sailors were flogged/keel hauled so do we cndemn half the Senior Service officers today with connections to the Admirals, Captains etc. of the Navy of that era. Nearer to home, rich Mine, Mill and Landowners made their fortunes off the back of the workers, many of whom lived in virtual slave conditions living in 'tied houses', forced to use Tommy shops, no right to vote etc. Do we continue to demonise the ancestors of those owners many of whom are now no longer in the privileged position of their forebears?

 

Hate the Torygraph so I can't take this seriously.

 

...and his poems didn't rhyme.

 

Having had a quick look at the British Library Twitter feed it has been taken over by a parody account. It’s wall to wall wokeness, I have nothing against lgbqt+, racial and sexual equality, but I think things like this do the actual causes a disservice by making it look ridiculous and therefore dismissed out of hand, so when legitimate issues need addressing too many people have turned off. It’s a pity whoever’s in charge there can’t see it.

 

Who put the 'ass' in assonance?

According to Shirley(Valentine)... assonance is "getting the thyme wrong"