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Patten criticism of Cecil Rhodes campaign 'scandalous'

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh says Cecil Rhodes statue is 'no longer tolerable' in current position.

One of the founding members of the campaign to move the statue of Cecil Rhodes at the University of Oxford to a museum says Lord Patten鈥檚 response to the campaign is 鈥渟candalous鈥.

Lord Patten, the university鈥檚 chancellor, told the Today programme that if Oxford students did not demonstrate a 鈥済enerosity of spirit鈥 towards history and respect for the principle of free speech 鈥渢hey should think about being educated elsewhere鈥.

But Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, an international relations student at Oxford, said the campaign was 鈥渄oing exactly what Lord Patten says a university is for.鈥

鈥淭he notion that Cecil Rhodes should be un-reflexively glorified鈥 we think is no longer tolerable,鈥 he told the Today programme.

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