Latest news with #VictoriaTowerGardens
The Independent
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Holocaust memorial critics warn of creating ‘monument to death and the Nazis'
Opponents of plans for a Holocaust memorial and learning centre next to Parliament have warned against building 'a monument to death and the Nazis'. Critics of the controversial scheme argue it is not too late to 'tweak' the 'botched' proposals and have vowed to continue their fight. Concerns were again raised at Westminster as legislation paving the way for the delayed development took a further step forward. The chosen site in Victoria Tower Gardens, located immediately adjacent to Parliament, has been contentious, with disquiet over the loss of green space in central London, the design of the scheme and security implications. A main obstacle to supporters was a 1900 law protecting the small triangular Grade II-listed park, which led to the quashing of planning permission after a legal battle. To overcome this, the Labour Government reintroduced the Holocaust Memorial Bill, proposed by the previous Tory administration. It will both authorise expenditure on the construction, maintenance and operation of the memorial and learning centre, and also disapply sections of the 1900 Act, removing the legal obstacle that has prevented the project from going ahead. The Bill received its third reading in the Lords on Tuesday and now goes to the Commons for MPs to consider a single change made by peers, making clear the sole purpose of the learning centre 'must be the provision of education about the Holocaust and antisemitism'. Independent crossbencher Baroness Deech, who lost her grandparents in the Holocaust, has been a leading critic of the proposed scheme. She said: 'Once we are free of the fears of this Government that any alternative is somehow giving in to the antisemitism of which the party was accused a few years ago – that is simply not the case – we will go forward with a planning process that might yet rescue this botched plan. 'It is not too late to tweak it and build not a monument to death and the Nazis but one dedicated to the need to preserve and understand Jewish life. 'At a time when a new version of the desire to destroy Jewish life in the Middle East and elsewhere is playing out as we speak, we could have a learning centre that extended to the achievement of the survivors of the Holocaust in building what was a safe haven for Jews, a land of their own. 'Is it not ironic that this Government are so respectful of six million dead but so cavalier about the fate of seven million of their descendants in Israel right now?' She added: 'We who understand what is at stake will continue to press our case. The fight is not over.' Liberal Democrat Baroness Walmsley said: 'I thank all those who pointed out the risks and drawbacks of the choice the Government have made about the location of the learning centre and express a hope that, on reflection, the Government may in time make a different choice.' Tory former minister Lord Robathan said: 'As somebody who cares hugely about the Jewish Holocaust and the ghastly thing it is, the site for the learning centre is wrong. 'It will be cramped and is not worthy of what we wish to commemorate. 'I say to the minister and others that back this, I personally don't believe it will be built, because there are going to be so many problems once you start destroying Victoria Gardens to do this.' Independent crossbencher Lord Inglewood, who is president of Historic Buildings & Places, said: 'I have to say to the House that, the more the Bill progressed, the more I became convinced that this proposal was overdevelopment and in the wrong place. 'I do not wish to say any more, other than, with sadness, that this Bill, the Holocaust Memorial Bill, will no doubt shortly be going on the statute. In my view it is not properly named. It is the Victoria Tower Gardens Destruction Bill.' Backing the project, Tory shadow communities minister, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, said: 'We have made a solemn commitment never to forget the horrors of the Holocaust and to work to ensure that it will never happen again. 'Holocaust education is an essential part of our efforts to make good on those promises. 'It has been the policy of successive Conservative governments that we need a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre.' Communities minister Lord Khan of Burnley said: 'Through this Bill, the Government are moving a step closer to delivering on the long-standing commitment to build a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre next to Parliament, where it rightly belongs.' He added: 'I think there are still some outstanding concerns, but let me reassure members who have them that, subject to the passage of the Bill in the other House and on to the statute book, there will be a process for people to put their representations, views and ideas forward about prospective future planning.'
Telegraph
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why the wrong memorial will water down the Holocaust
On Wednesday, the Holocaust Memorial Bill returns to the House of Lords. What a waste of energy over seven and more years this project has been. The motives are good. Unfortunately, the idea is not. In the great battle against growing anti-Semitism in our society, precious weapons are being mistargeted. There are strong second-order objections to the memorial and its accompanying 'learning centre'. They include the vast cost, over £200 million; the lack of room in Victoria Tower Gardens and the loss of green space; the security risk at the heart of government and Parliament which the police and parliamentary authorities increasingly fail to control; and the fact that the gardens will soon be overcrowded by the overspill for the coming 30-year project to restore the fabric of the Houses of Parliament next door. There will be parliamentary amendments tomorrow to address these last two points. Most of the Bill's opponents, many of whom are Jewish, do want a memorial, but a much smaller and more beautiful one. The present design is a grandiose hand-me-down, by the somewhat discredited architect David Adjaye, already used elsewhere. Opponents also do not want the learning centre. Tristram Hunt, the distinguished director of the V&A, thinks it could be much better managed at the Imperial War Museum. The key objection relates to what is really being commemorated. If you track the history of Holocaust Memorial Day since it was instituted a quarter of a century ago, you will find increasing pressure to water down the concept. There have been several occasions – ITV's Good Morning Britain this year, for example – in which coverage has entirely failed to mention the Jews at all, let alone the fact that the Holocaust killed six million of them. People such as the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, unfailingly hostile to Israel and previously friendly to murderous Hamas, have thus found it possible to take part in Holocaust Memorial Day without having to confront the grim truth of history. Over time, the uniqueness of the Jewish experience thus slips away. A process begins in which the word 'Holocaust' is taken to stand for any persecution of any group by any other group. From there, it is a short step to suggesting, as pro-Gaza mobs always do, that Israel itself is committing genocide against Palestinians. This is not an isolated outbreak of a few fanatics, but a deliberate plan to strip the Jewish state – and all Jews – of their moral authority. The ultimate aim is to preach the equation 'Jews = Israel = Nazis'. This libel is so widespread as to have become one of the main tropes of anti-Semitism. The danger is that the wrong sort of commemoration will facilitate this. Delegations from anti-Israel countries and 'humanitarian' organisations emerging from Parliament will stroll into Victoria Tower Gardens, pose outside the Holocaust Memorial and deliver their piece to camera about alleged war crimes, starvation of children etc. You can just imagine the ineffable Greta Thunberg doing exactly that. Sad to say, both main political parties are putting on whips to get the memorial Bill through Parliament. This suggests an underlying uncertainty about the rightness of their cause. Traditionally, votes on matters of conscience are not whipped. Surely Holocaust commemoration is a classic conscience issue in which party considerations have no place. I fear that establishment politicians, frightened of being labelled anti-Semitic, have supported this great big project without thinking about it. Yet thought is exactly what is needed to correct the errors of Holocaust education today. By the way, there exists a splendid role model for commemoration in, of all places, Poland. The POLIN museum in Warsaw movingly and expertly relates its country's part of the full story we all need to know – how Jews lived there for a thousand years and how, in the end, and most horribly, they died. Weathering the storm Like many parishes, our village held its annual fete last Saturday. The problem, in advance, was the weather. Nowadays, weather forecasting is so much more accurate that if it says, two or three days before, that it will rain, it probably will. So event-planners must take it seriously. This avoids the occasional spectacular washouts of the past, after which everyone used to say, through gritted teeth, 'Rain failed to dampen the spirits'. Our organisers therefore did the prudent thing and announced that the fete would not be held in the public garden by the church but in the village's two interconnected halls. The trouble was that, on the day, there was virtually no rain during the fete's opening hours. We all felt slightly silly because we could have stuck with the original plan and saved ourselves a lot of trouble. Should we have followed the old way and just held the thing outdoors, rain or shine? I am not sure of the answer. But I do know that everyone enjoyed the make-do atmosphere among the crowded stalls and the noisy Punch-and-Judy show inside, finding community in adversity. Business was brisk. The splash headline in our local paper says, 'Post office to remain open'. My first reaction was to laugh at this non-news. After all, it is in the nature of shops to open. But I quickly realised I was wrong. It was indeed news. The unspoken policy of the modern Post Office is to close itself down. A decision in the opposite direction certainly deserves the front page.
