If you find Churchill offensive why work for his charity?

‘Mrs Pankhurst stood up for the Empire – a cardinal sin today’

- Ross Clark

I DOUBT whether many people would have noticed that the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust had changed its name to the “Churchill Fellowship” had it not also put out a statement headed “racism is unacceptable”, saying that Churchill’s “views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today, a view that we share”.

The charity, set up on Churchill’s death in 1965 with the express purpose of providing grants for UK citizens to study abroad and for foreign students to study in Britain – has tried to explain its rebranding by saying that its previous name was “confusing”.

But surely it creates more confusion when an organisation suddenly dumps the name it has had for the past 56 years.

Moreover, when the trust’s website was first changed to carry the new logo, a photograph of Sir Winston was removed – although it has been reinstated following complaints.

The charity denies it is trying to downplay the connection with the wartime prime minister by putting out another statement: “The key element we kept was the name ‘Churchill’. You cannot look at our new logo and avoid the importance we attach to that name.”