Rennie urges government to press ahead with Museum of Empire and Slavery

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie has today urged the Scottish Government to press ahead with a Museum of Empire and Slavery to inform and educate about the role of Scots in the slave trade and the colonial era.

Mr Rennie said:

“The time is ripe for an honest reappraisal of the role of Scots and Scotland in the colonial projects.

“Across the country many of the streets and buildings that we pass by everyday honour men who behaved, by modern standards, appallingly.

“A Museum of Empire and Slavery would allow us to reckon with the legacy of these figures. That doesn’t mean tearing down our history and our heritage but understanding it in the proper context and with all the facts.

“I am urging the Scottish Government to move forward with this project because it’s also a chance to bust the nationalist myth that Scotland didn't have anything to do with the British Empire.

“While I am sure SNP ministers are keen for us to learn from our history so that it is not allowed to repeat itself, there is a certain strain of online nationalist mythologist desperate to pretend that colonialism was a uniquely English project which did not extend north of the border. That historically inaccurate attitude needs to be stamped out.

“A city like Glasgow did not become the self-proclaimed “second city of Empire” without accruing its fair share of blame.

“This can be a valuable resource for schoolchildren and others for years to come and I hope ministers will move forward with greater speed.”