James Morrow: Movement to cancel Queen Victoria, one of history’s most important women

Stop trying to cancel Queen Victoria. Instead, Inner West Council ratepayer James Morrow wants them to concentrate on doing the jobs that they were elected to do.

Look, if some greenie councillor wanted to rename Marrickville’s Victoria Road because it served as a depressing reminder of how not to handle a pandemic, you might be able to say he had a case.

But no, wouldn’t you know it, the push by Inner West Greens councillor Colin Hesse to rename the traffic artery Gumbramorra, an Aboriginal name for the wetlands where the road now sits, is all about … you guessed it … racism and colonialism and all the other – isms that progressives now fight in the name of “progress”.

Queen Victoria, Empress of the British Empire

Having lived in the Democratic People’s Republic of the Inner West for nearly a dozen years (when people ask why, I tell them I’m bringing it down from the inside), I can tell you that the coffee is great, the neighbours are friendly, and the other dogs at the park are just the right level of enthusiastic.

Oh, and the politics are bonkers as you’ll see north of Melbourne or south of Pyongyang.

Remember, the Inner West Council is the descendant of the old Marrickville Council, which in 2011 made headlines around the world for trying to boycott Israel.

Until relatively recently, when you crossed the border coming down Parramatta Road you were greeted with a “Nuclear Free Zone” sign, all the better to stop fallout clouds and atomic shockwaves to go no further west than Mallett Street.

An anti-racism sign in the inner west. Source: Twitter

Now, they’ve been replaced with #RacismNotWelcome signs, adding a fourth R to the traditional local government responsibilities of rates, roads, and rubbish.

Re-engineering foreign policy, physics, and the human heart would be a great use of ratepayer money if they were somehow able to lick the problem of paving streets only to have them dug up by Sydney Water three weeks later.

Perhaps instead Mr Hesse and his colleagues should spend all that money that’s clearly burning a hole in the council’s pockets buying a history book and learning a thing or two about the great empress, Queen Victoria – instead of trying to cancel her.