I WRITE in response to Bob Timmis’ letter to the Warrington Guardian about the removal of Oliver Cromwell’s statue.

Mr Timmis says he’s asking a very difficult question, well I’ll give him my answer for what it’s worth.

Mr Timmis starts by saying that its possible his forebearers came from Ireland and so he finds Oliver Cromwell statue offensive because of what Cromwell did in Ireland, but maybe his ancestors fought with Cromwell in his Irish units?

With peace in Northern Ireland, why anyone would want to open that large can of worms is anyone’s guess.

When people like Mr Timmis can take offence over historical events that happened centuries ago on the thinnest of thin connections we’ll be on a very slippery slope.

Where will Mr Timmis cast his beady eye next in his search for offence, what about Cromwell’s cottage on Church Street?

Should it be pulled down, or the Town Hall gates because of their association with Queen Victoria who was a racist according to the likes of Mr Timmis?

We could melt the gates down or rename Victoria Park the level playing fields.

Then what next for the town to be removed, how about the Boer war memorial in Palmyra gardens, surely a racist monument?

Then the cenotaph, I mean if Winston Churchill is now a racist then those who served under him must be racist as well.

What happened to George Floyd shouldn’t be used by people to reinvent this country’s past.

The past is the past both good and bad.

If a statue’s been there a long time then it gives people a sense of connection to things their relatives would have seen and continuity.

ANDY FLOYD Warrington