Nelson is not being renamed, but you don’t need this article to tell you that – Caerphilly Observer

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The village of Nelson made national headlines over the weekend after it was reported by the Telegraph that its name has been placed on a council list of problematic place names with links to the slave trade.

Cue social media outrage at suggestions that Nelson should be changing its name or that wokeness was somehow out of control.

The Daily Mail and the Times followed the story up as did Nation.Cymru albeit with their own angle suggesting the area revert to its Welsh name of Ffos y Gerddinen.

As a journalist I can see how this story was constructed.

The article implied that Caerphilly County Borough Council decided upon itself to create this list and the Telegraph got two Conservative politicians to criticise the Labour-run local authority.

While the council did create a list of place names with possible links to the slave trade, it was actually for submission to a national audit announced by the First Minister in June last year. This was in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The results of this were published in November last year 11 months ago. It was widely covered by the media at the time.

The audit stated that Horatio Nelson privately opposed the abolition of the slave trade, although he made no public declaration of his stance.

Newspapers and websites write for their audiences. The notion of an entire village cited as a problematic place in the context of the UKs culture wars (whatever they actually are) was simply a great story for the Telegraph and other right-wing outlets.

What the Telegraph published wasnt inaccurate (apart from describing Churchill Park as a park), but it was framed in such a way as to create controversy and outrage.

At the time of the audits publication in November last year, First Minister Mark Drakeford said: This is not about rewriting our past or naming and shaming. It is about learning from the events of the past.

It is an opportunity for us to establish a mature relationship with our history and find a heritage which can be shared by us all.

How can anyone argue with this aim? Unless you want to stir things up with the so-called culture wars.

The Telegraph article is a classic example of journalism generating a lot of heat but not much light.

I was torn over whether to spend time on this story today. I didnt want to write a story along the lines of Claims that Nelson will be renamed have been denied etc, as its obvious.

Of course, the council and its leadership have moved to say Nelson will not be renamed and they had to because of the reaction online.

The speed at which information (or misinformation) is spread these days is frightening the Telegraph article has already been referenced on Nelsons Wikipedia entry. So rather than just write a click-bait article with the obvious denials, I wanted to explain how this stuff can happen. Its what I think journalism should be about.

Richard is the editor and publisher of Caerphilly Observer which he set up in 2009. Growing up in Abertridwr, he started his career at the now defunct Campaign before stints at the Barry and District News and Brighton Argus.He can be contacted at richard@caerphilly.observer

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Nelson is not being renamed, but you don't need this article to tell you that - Caerphilly Observer