Rejected petition Remove the statue of George Carteret from St.Peter due to slavery participation.
George Carteret founded a company that traded in slaves. Through memorializing him in this way, with no room for interpretation or acknowledgment of the past, it only serves to promote a prominent figure involved in slavery, suggesting there is still room for racism in our island.
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When the statue was erected in 2014 politicians commented that he represents a ‘role model’ and that he should be recognised both ‘locally and nationally’. The only recognition we should give George Carteret is for his abhorrent involvement in the slave trade and presenting a statue of him in celebration is wrong. Statues are not about history, and rather adoration. The statue should be removed immediately and placed in a museum setting where the correct context can be added.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
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One of the issues we had with all of the versions submitted was that the statue is on private land and petitions have to seek action from the States about something: they could not make the owner take down the statue. What the Assembly can be asked to do is ensure all monuments in the public realm align with modern values and don't celebrate slave traders. We hope you will be able to support the petition which has now gone 'live'.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.