Elijah Lawal, Gary Younge and Alex von Tunzelmann Chaired by Stephen Law

Google PR manager Elijah Lawal, sociologist and former Guardian columnist Professor Gary Younge, and historian and screenwriter Alex von Tunzelmann debate whether the statues of fallen idols should stay or go.

Statues and monuments honouring Confederate generals have been toppled in the US. A statue of a 17th-century slave trader was dumped in Bristol harbour in the UK. A statue of the Belgian king who oversaw brutal exploitation in the Congo was burned. A statue of Cecil Rhodes controversially remains on the façade of Oriel College, Oxford, though protesters have long called for it to fall. Is it right that such statues be removed if they honour people whose values we now abhor? Or is their removal to ’lie about our history’, as Boris Johnson put it, and to cave into a censorious culture?

Lawal is a PR manager at Google and is passionate about helping underrepresented people grow their careers in creative industries. He was a finalist of the Penguin WriteNow scheme and is author of The Clapback: your guide to calling out racist stereotypes. Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. He is a former Guardian columnist and author five books including Who Are We?, And Should it Matter in the 21st century?. Von Tunzelmann is an historian, a screenwriter for film and television, and author of books including Fallen Idols, Twelve Statues That Made History. Discussions are chaired by Dr Stephen Law, a philosopher and academic, author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think.