THE controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College is set to be removed this summer due its links to the slave trade.

Once removed, the statue will be placed in a museum, but a number of dons are determined to block the move.

The long-running campaign gained renewed attention last June after a statue of the 17th century slave trader Edward Colston, was thrown in a dock in Bristol by Black Lives Matter protestors.

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Here is what our readers said about the news:

CRAIG BRYANT: “Removing a statue is not erasing history. Pick up a history book and you’ll see why there shouldn’t be a statue of him. Sparking conflicts in Africa out of greed and a very misplaced sense of ‘superiority’, also a colossal racist.”

JAYSTAR: “If you erase all of history then nobody will know what the past was like when it came to racism so we have nothing to compare by and see how far we have progressed.”

PHILIP BABU RAJ: “Very sad to see that management succumb pressure in removal of the statue. By removing the statue you cannot erase the history. Very sad that we keep removing statues like this, there will be no history left.”

NICK EDMONDS: “It is almost as if education brings with it greater understanding of ethics and morals and a more progressive outlook on society instead of a regressive and traditional belief that everything should remain the same, who would have thought.”

DAVID ANTHONY SNOW: “How sad is that? The ‘seat of learning’ has become ‘the seat of wokism’.”

DES BRAMBLEY: “It’s still possible to read and learn about history though. The statue has no accompanying information with it so it doesn’t actually add to the history of the man. You realise Germany destroyed every Nazi statue and people still know about their history in Germany. It’s hysterical to claim this is removing history.”

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CARLY ENGLISH: “History is there for a reason whether you like it or not, in fact if you don’t even like it the better, you are less likely to repeat it.”

KEVIN STROUDLEY: “Absolutely ridiculous, what about all the good that he had done, you can’t bring the past forward, people should move on and deal with it.”

CRAIG BRYANT: “Whatever good he did, is vastly outweighed by he amount of blood on this man’s hands.”

MAX BARBER: “I assume they are also getting rid of the Rhodes scholarship as well. I’m not sure you can justify one and not the other.”

MARGARET BOGGS: “Not too sure how you can condemn the legacy but then profit from the legacy.”

DANIEL EBBERSON: “Remove the funding as well.”

JAMES SPARKS: “The reasoned rational arguments presented so eloquently here really are counter productive. I wonder how many folk are able to separate the means of the man from his financial legacy. Maybe they also consider Jimmy Saville a wonderful TV personality of his time?”

JANE KEARNS: “Why do we keep white washing history, it happened it’s a fact but that was then and what was ok even 20 years ago isn’t acceptable today, that’s evolution, it happens everyday, we nee to learn from it not destroy it.”

LIZ JONES: “It should stay. It’s our history and that cannot be erased.”

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PTAH POWELL: “Good news. It is sad that a large number of the British people continue to hold on to the idea that they are somehow superior than others by glorifying evil, injustice, genocide, stealing, etc.”

JUSTIN KING: “Get him down.”

TIM GERAD DOWD: “I hope the Rhodes scholarship money is donated to charity. But I expect the university will waste it on fine wine and food, not doubt it’s our history and a legacy we should be aware of. Shame on the university.”

PINDY MITH: “They are not planning on destroying the statue, but moving it to a museum. I’ve lived in Oxford all my life and the first time I ever heard about Rhodes was in the context of anti-racist, student-led protests to decolonise campuses. Statues don’t wear awareness, and they are not intended to educate, but lionise individuals and if it turns out an individual was a monstrous racist, who exactly is so motivated to keep it in place? “

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