Celebrating and recognising our diversity across London's public realm

It is a mistake to try to emphasise the many different kinds of people in London. This is because many of them wish to identify with Londoners rather than than to show their differences, and also because when a number of them are shown there will always be some who are not and consequently will wish to make trouble over their being ignored. Posters shouwing unity and not diversity would be better.

What we do is leave the past alone, it doesn't belong to us but to our predecessors who lived and worked to give us the world we have today.   Changing tangible symbols of the past will not change the future for the better, quite the contrary by demeaning history, whereby learning from the past and working for a new future in an INTEGRATED society will benefit all of us.

A society can only have one culture or it ceases to be a society and that culture in Great Britain is the British way of life which may slowly and naturally change over generations.

I am in sympathy with most of the messages that say that this is a total waste of money and is sheer political correctness. The reason we are being allowed to 'have our say' is so that the Mayor will see how much opposition there is to his daft plans and therefore try to find another method to get his way. I am totally opposed to multiculturalism. I lived in Australia for many years where the ruling classes consider it a great success. It isn't. The major cities have areas where minorities live. There is little attempt at assimilation. Assimilation is what is needed here. If I go to live in another country it is in my interests to 'fit in' and learn the language. I learnt that hard lesson in Australia. That should happen here but it has gone too far. As for the money to be wasted in this scheme I would rather it be spent on erasing graffiti and other antisocial things. Much more important than black bus drivers. Read the messages above. Most of them will tell you what Londoners think of this. I would go so far as to call it an outrage and a waste lof my council tax. Read the post by Istone, easily the best and most considered post in this stream.

I'm afraid that there is something a pernicious and divisive agenda in this commission. It seems to me there are two main issues. First, what do we do with existing statues, street names and monuments; second, what should we do in the future.

To the first point, we have to get away from a simplistic 'good vs bad' narrative. We are all human, we all do good and bad. Who are any of us to judge someone as 'bad' when they may have done many good things? Take Napier in Trafalgar Square for example. He was a complex character who did many good things as well as bad. The idea that someone or some committee can pass judgement on him 200 years after his death is a dangerous one. It reminds me of digging up the bones of supposed heretics and burning them. Moreover, we also have to understand these statues as memorials that we raised by a past society. Ok, now we probably wouldn't put up a statue to Napier, but Victorian society did and that fact tells us a lot about that society. If we take his statue down, then we lose a way to understand that society. It's no different to the iconoclasts who smashed churches to pieces in the sixteenth century. Think what was lost then. Do we want to do the same now? In which case, where does it end? Do we burn books that we don't like? Of what does that remind you?

To the second, I don't see why we need to differentiate on grounds of identity - whatever that identity may be. If someone deserves recognition, then let them be recognised. It's worth asking if statues are the best way of doing that anyway. Mary Seacole, for example, would probably be more pleased to have wards and scholarships named after her than a statue commemorating her. If we want to honour bus drivers (why - what have they done that's particularly special anyway? Why not supermarket workers or rubbish collectors?), then name buses after them. But surely they have to have done something to merit recognition? 

I think it's a great idea, there is so much to share in this great city, BUT there are those who want to erase some parts of our history, albeit some not so good, but at the end of the day it's still OUR history and that can NOT be allowed to happen. The only way we can learn from it is to educate our next generation (If they can be bothered to turn up to school that is). Either way, you can not erase history or cover it up or airbrush it out of our lives as it will, at some point, rear it's head again.

London has a long history and has developed naturally from the progression of people from all parts of Britain and western Europe and from our Commonwealth.   The one notable thing has been the way that those who come to London adapt to the Londoners' way of life and their language.    Integration has been the backbone of London's success and world wide reputation and has always bee a natural development.

What is NOT needed is manipulation by politicians that will upset the natural cohesion and development.   Evidence of such failings in political interference are the ghettos that have arisen due to the social housing allocation whereby immigrants have been settled in national "communities" thereby denying them integration into a London neighbourhood.

STOP INTERFERING, STOP PLAYING GOD.

So now it doesn't matter what you did but if you're the "minority"?
There's huge history of great white people in Britain. You can't wipe it out.
If someone deserves a statue it doesn't matter how they look or who they sleep with. It's absolutely irrelevant.
Why you don't celebrate Chinese bus drivers? Indian bus drivers? British bus drivers? Why black bus drivers are special? Do they do their job better than drivers of any other race?
This is a diverse city but to have a monument you must do something special. Polish War Memorial isn't there because there's huge Polish community in London but because of what polish airforces done for Britain and that's how you should celebrate "diversity" - by treating people EQUALY and honour them for their actions not skin colour.

I want anyone who warrants celebration to be known but I do not believe in airbrushing history and I want to keep learning it all- good and bad. This strikes me as political correctness yet again- and I do not appreciate it. Trust me- people will look back at the way we did things in 100s of years and will find it dreadful how we behaved-that is because many have yet to learn. I am a born and bred Londoner and I love my city but I know it is not perfect- because what is? Every country, or region within that country has it's language- London's is English- why not help people who are resident learn the language ?

I agree we should be celebrating all people and are missing the huge amount of women, people of different races etc. who have made great contributions to our great city. This should be in addition to telling our history good and bad. However none of this will make a difference if the prejudice which makes black children more likely to be expelled from schools. poor white children less likely to go to university, women underrepresented in management etc. etc. is not sorted out.

Seems a total waste of money and resources.  Renaming streets is just an attempt to wipe out history - just like the fanatics in ISIS and fascists did. And why would we be celebrating black bus drivers instead of white ones?  This smacks of racial discrimination. 

Convention the world over is that you celebrate people with street names and street art who have achieved something, are great National statesmen or women or have done something for the community- not identify and celebrate them solely because of their race or sexual identity, which seems to be the intention here. The fact we have so many white men represented by statues may be because that was the heritage of this country for several hundreds of years. Minority communities which have only been in numbers in the UK for the last 70 years will take a bit longer to find representation as historical figures. Yes we should reflect todays society but for the right reasons, not just to achieve diversity quotas.

Sounds like PC gone mad all over again. STOP TRYING TO SATISFY ALL DIVERSITIES OF LONDON WHEN YOU END UP PLEASING NO ONE OF ANY DIVERSITY - INCLUDING 'WHITES'.

PATHETIC!!!

Of course, we know what this is REALLY about don't we? It's about Mayor Sadiq Khan muscling himself up with 'political stroking' of our ethnic Londoners prior to the next London mayoral elections. 

As a huge fan of the Arts, I would welcome a sculpture trail.  London has a fabulous wealth of this art form - much unknown.  There is nothing like the joy of appreciating sculptures outdoors, not inside a confined space.  Simply a fabulous joy, in a natural environment.

Wouldn't it be nice if one day the majority population of this country was recognised, We are not the white middle and upper class from the past, or the BAME activists of today, but the working class, who always seem to be forgotten and ignored. 

It must be equally true to say that about the same number of languages are spoken in EVERY major city in the world.

English is a widely spoken language across the globe and after all, this IS England. There is already a sensory overload in most parts of London from all the signage - and that is while there is only ONE language used. Pictograms are extremely helpful in crossing all language barriers.

Many states in the USA now suffer enormously because they did this with Spanish and the result is that a huge percentage of the population no longer have a lingua franca, That is potentially very dangerous. It is extremely important that immigrants to ANY country learn the language of their adopted home. I don't believe tourism is adversely affected to any significant degree because we speak English here.

I think its nice to be welcoming, but in this case its a bad idea indeed.