I AM presently in South Africa following the cricket, and have been surprised by the number of people here who want to know why the Oxford students are so against what Rhodes achieved in the UK.

How can it be possible to draw conclusions about an individual that lived so long ago? Those students have absolutely no idea about the real values and ideals of people in those days, maybe things were very different for a white man growing up in South Africa back then and we should not be judging him based on what the political situation was in those times.

Let me be clear, I am not a racist and certainly not a supporter of apartheid, but things have moved on now and this prevailing culture of looking back in time and saying “that was wrong” gets us absolutely nowhere.

Research and debate are a vital part of our culture and bring about a greater understanding of those that came before us.

However, tearing down statues and rewriting history is more aligned to fanatics which is not an ideal I want to associate with any Oxford University student.

NICK DUVAL
School Road
Kidlington