Whilst at the Co-operative Party conference nipped over the road to see the new Nelson Mandela statue. It's big and attracts tourists. Round the corner is a statue to Jan Smuts, and over heard a couple of blokes from South Africa pretty disgusted that he was there. Sort of what I thought when I saw a statue to Field Marshall Haig outside Edinburgh Castle. But that's history for you - it gets re-written year on year and sometimes there are reminders that it was written entirely differently. Everybody wants to be in a picture with Nelson Mandela, but people forget all the politics that demanded his release from prison - your average Tory politician (some notable exceptions) and the Daily Mail (there are never exceptions for this rag) had him named as a terrorist.
