Letter to the Editor: The View from the Vaults column raises a very important controversy, whether ‘wokeness’ is radical rabble rousing (Gareth James, Cambrian News, 16 November). Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, certainly thinks it is for she was so upset when a jury acquitted the Colston Four, that she referred the case to the Court of Appeal Its judgement further weakened the right to protest, by only allowing the defendants the defence of human rights to protest in “low value cases”.

Colston’s bronze statue was presumably of “low value”, but would the Colston Four have been jailed for ten years if it had been cast in gold?

And where in all this is the value of untold thousands of slaves’ lives, many thrown overboard, dead or diseased, and even alive if a ship of the line approached? But, oh, the fuss made of a statue of a man indifferent to all that misery, being unceremoniously thrown in the dock, like his unfortunate victims.

But surely, there is an explanation for these culture wars that receives little or no comment. History has always been manipulated by the ruling class, in all nations.

We could call it “Mythstory” — an account that burnishes the reputation of those that compile it.

When at school I learned of Clive of India, who controlled the East India Company, a very wealthy trading body. That was all I learned about him, but not that he died in disgrace for corruption on a grand scale, far greater than PPE bandits.

It is said that behind many great fortunes there is a crime, and that is true of slavery, in spades, involving most of the British ruling class, and their Church of England, the Tory party at prayer.

Is it therefore surprising that they fear the exposure of the historical truth that destroys their reputation for moral rectitude.

I would suggest that is the reason for their strident denunciation of wokeness, it has made people aware of those highly embarrassing historical skeletons in the cupboard.

Roger Louvet,

Porthmadog