Celebrating and recognising our diversity across London's public realm

 I think the major issue here is the budget involved & who pays for it. Some of the Victorian statues have the inscription "By Public Subscription"  on them & bI think one has the rider " of whom ythe most numerous were common soldiers" (I think that was on General Havelock in Trafalgar Square.  It would be interesting to know how existing statues were paid for & whether we are prepared to pay up for new ones. Probably not so much of a priority at present. That aside, who should be represented ? Alan Turing is now an LGBTQ icon although we might want a memorial to him for sort of winning WW2. Black campaigners fir the abolition of slavery seem to get obscured - Olaudah Equiano & Ignacio Sanchez. I can't see how street names & Blue Plaques can be that expensive. I am the most white English person I know, but given the number of black people in London historically, such people are most likely amongst my ancestors.

I am a "minority" immigrant in London, and I do not want to see London change to fit me and my culture.

So what you are proposing is that you want to force-represent  "Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, women, LGTBQI+, disabled groups and people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds"  in street names, squares, statues and monuments. 

If there are well-known black historical figures then sure, go ahead and celebrate them as part of UK history and creating NEW monuments, not replacing or re-branding existing ones. While I understand that under-represented groups should have fair opportunity and ablity to represent themselves in London, they should never force diversity and ironically, be over-represented than others. 

Also why is this obsession with diversity and forced representation at all? London represents England, it's history, not the plaques. statues and street names of 300 langauges spoken in it. It's absurd to think this as a problem for London. 

Under the banner of "diversity" all is done is removal of "problematic" statues which are part of British history in very violent, aggressive and self-shaming manner, completelty not civil or a just way. Diversity basically means anti-white and especially anti-white-male. We all know that.

What is the point of celebrating black bus drivers? Why segragate a race in one proffesion and celebrate that? Sounds racist to me.

You want to celebrate bus drivers? OK. Why celebrate speicifc colours of their skin? Whats there to celebrate in it? A celebration of one skin colour is dangerously similar to what actual fascists approve. 

Ironic that intolerance seems to be surfacing here (GLA consultation on public realm) during 2020 National Hate Crime Awareness Week 

So hope I'm NOT gonna get flamed for my anodyne suggestion that Public Realm should take more account of level access to better meet needs of many groups of Londoners  - people with prams, with wheelchairs, people with limiting health conditions, people carrying stuff etc - so YES to more Sculpture/Art trails, more/better signage at significant transport nodes and more cool street art - but can we make sure they are (and remain) accessible 

How about you stop wasting our money on this stuff and put some serious effort in tackling crime (real crime... you now stuff like burglaries and gangs) and other real social plagues like litter?? This city in literally drowning in trash and it gets worse every day. 

If you want to celebrate bus drivers give them a raise (to all not just black). 

A better use of the money is to ensure contractually that all businesses located  in London embrace diversity and inclusion with quarterly submissions of reports on their recruitment practices, promotion practices, performance review practices and redundancy practices. That would get more unemployed Londoners back into employment or keep them in employment in a way changing statues and street names won't. Changing statues and street names in the public realm is just a superficial exercise that doesn't address discrimination some Londoners experience day to day.

Put plaques beside monuments, statues etc giving their history with online links to further explanations. We must learn from our past mistakes, not bury them.

As for today's favourites, how many will pass muster with future generations? Even the saintly Attenborough admits to eating the flesh of animals. JK Rowling is already on the naughty step. The Queen's statue won't last long due to her ancestors' behaviours.

Have you ever supported military intervention? Wore leather? wool? disrepected anyone? Killed a spider? gambled? drank alcohol, taken mind-altering drugs, taken vaccines obtained through animal experiments, let alone wore cosmetics?

Let's hope future generations are not as intolerant as our current one or we're all dammed. Still, what have the future generations ever done for us?

Find ways to fund such projects other than imposition on the residents of London who are overburdened already.

Let things evolve naturally rather than imposing an agenda based on divisive labels and other fake criteria.

Reflect the true history of London and the UK and not some idealised version of it.

Do not try to enforce conformity on the London public, it will be ignored. 

Celebrating our past and present is important if we want to build towards our future, but this celebration needs to be carefully measured so that we do not celebrate the good by excluding or covering up the bad. We need to be honest about our past and give long overdue attention to those that have been edited out of our history. 

Yet another waste of money idea from from the biggest waste of money that the London Council tax payers are forced to fund. Maybe a better idea is to scrap the post of Mayor and get rid of he useless bunch of deputies. Hopefully the people of London will vote out the present totally useless mayor. Then we might get a proper person who can do the job. Maybe Mt Khan could do Londoners a favour and resign!!! Taking the Fat Cst advisors and hangers on with him.

Remove all the monarchical names from streets, squares, roads, buildings and replace them with the names of artists, doctors, poets, dramatists, inventors and half must be women. Represent the people not the ruling elite who were never democratically elected.

This really is not a good idea, who is actually asking for this? You are causing division and tension when we really do not need it -Please stop it. Londoners get on fine as we are, you are making a problem not addressing one. Wasting money and time that could be better spent elsewhere....on our children would be a good start

It is laudable to recognise London's diversity but great care must be taken not to over empasise the diversity in the past. Quotas should be avoided and the criteria used in chosing who to commemorate, in any way, should be impartial as to colour, sex, sexual orientation etc and based purely on merit.

I do agree that 'hidden history' should be told, but that does not mean that existing history should be ignored. As one of the comments said, the people remembered by statues might have done evil, but they also did good. Statues should not be removed but perhaps have plaques attached giving details of their achievements AND their failings.

It is important to preserve a balance. You mention working class Londoners.  I have seen an excellent example of remembering them at the Tower Bridge museum, which shows ALL the workers involved in its construction.

Some people are against diversity because they think it's divisive - this just need not be!  It is interesting and enriching. Many of us who imagine we only have 'one' culture or background might find many if we dig a little deeper.