Cultural amnesia explains our fury at the past
I was in Newcastle the other day and found myself standing beneath Lord Grey’s Monument. The column is 135 feet of Roman Doric, which seems a generous allotment for a man now principally famous as a bergamot-blend tea. Earl Grey passed the Great Reform Act of 1832 and broke the old grand Whiggism, of which he was a scion, in the process. The city built the column while he was still alive. Two hundred years on, Lord Grey is a landmark locals use to orient themselves towards Primark. A few yards away, in the cathedral, I came upon a memorial to Admiral Collingwood, Nelson’s second-in-command at Trafalgar. I doubt one Geordie in a hundred could tell you who he was.
