Statue of Falsely-Maligned Scouting Founder Baden-Powell Gets 24-Hour Security
A woman holds a placards reading "British History Matters" alongside a statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, on the quayside in Bournemouth, southern England, on June 11, 2020, after the council said it would remove the statue.
Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart News
A statue of the world-famous and broadly admired founder of the Scouting movement was due to be removed on Thursday, but the plans were postponed, and now the figure will receive 24-hour security.
While work crews had been booked to remove the statue, the contractors refused to perform the work, Poole’s local newspaper the Bournemouth Echo reported. They are said to have told the council they would not proceed while people surrounded the statue.
The strength of feeling in favour of the statue was underlined when locals turned out to defend the public work of art, with anti-vandalisation demonstrators holding signs reading “British History Matters”, and a pair of Scout leaders arriving in full uniform to salute Baden-Powell. A petition to save the statue has reached nearly 17,000 signatures in a few hours.
The local authority insisted it wanted to remove the statue for its own protection after it was named by left-wing extremists as a target for removal, and intended to put it back once the “threat” had passed.
