What should Wales do with the symbols of our colonial history?

Rho fe ar werth ar "e-bay", a fuddsoddwch yr arian i wella isadeiledd sir Fôn!

I am afraid when so many agree with Democrat Candidate Joe Biden who recently said "We choose truth over facts." Everyone gets their own truth, see? No, I like facts. Like, for example, any skoolboy no that Nelson's signal "confides" required a flag-per-letter, so they used "expects" which only needed one signal flag. It wasn't myth-making at that stage. Also, as Trump warned, you start with a statue of Robert E.Lee, a highly respected figure on both sides. And soon they may come for George Washington, which didn't seem likely when he said it. But they have just boarded up a painting of Washington because it triggered stress. They pulled back from destroying it because that would have been too close to book-burning. Exactly. When you are playing fast and loose with history, and threatening to destroy property, historic artefacts, you are close to some very bad precedents - Hitler's Sturm Abteilung, Mao's Red Guards. Nelson in N.Wales is way out of place, but factless mobs and twitter-mobs worry me more. As Ireland shows, with its red VR postboxes painted green, Wales could move on from our past, get a 2-state solution with England, and keep smiling with our feet on the ground.

PS - melt down the Glyndwr Statue in Corwen, because, although a hero to some, in 'truth' he was a white male patriarch nationalist/fascist who favoured violence and probably favoured smacking and wasn't bothered by sugary drinks? Satire - how do you know Leanne Wood wouldn't secretly like to melt him down? Tell us, LW

Like it or not these things are part and parcel of out history, what next book burning?

Knock it down, it's very patronising to us Welsh.

Add a plaque outlining the truth which is based on the facts.

An interesting debate! Personally, I think our historical monuments should be left as they are: as you said, like it or not Wales was an enthusiastic collaborator in the British Empire and, whilst cultural repression of the Welsh did happen, we are not blameless when it comes to matters of colonialism. It’s important we understand that as we assess our personal and national attitudes to our past, to ourselves, to our place in the world. These monuments are tangible gateways to the past, how people thought, the politics and propagandas of a bygone era; removing them distances us from history and that can never be a good idea when there are so many lessons to be learned from what has gone before. What is vital is how we teach people to think about these artefacts; we need to educate people to interpret something like this statue and the complex issues around it using contexts of the past and the present. We need to teach Welsh history properly and teach people to be curious about it, challenge themselves with it, to learn about the present from learning about the past.

So do we destroy all the castles Edward Longhshanks built, Rip up all Roman remains? What do you think would have become of Wales, had the French defeated the Royal Navy in 1805, and invaded Britain? Leave all historical monuments alone, we need to understand history, and not try to eradicate it. You can't change the past.

Dylia ni eu malu nhw’n racs fel ddaru nhw’n Iwerddon.

This is the kind of article that I like to see - one that raises issues and asks questions - rather than pushing a particular ideological point (like the promotion of "diversity" that is intolerant of diversity of opinion, for example). Regarding the Nelson statue, I think it should stay, not as a glorification of Empire days but an echo of our past good for generating discussion and reappraisal.

You shouldnt remove parts of history, just because you dont like the past or we become ignorant of the past and what happend. Otherwise your no better than hitler who wanted people of the future to be ignorant by trying to remove parts of history like burning books. Lets not be ignorant; lets be aware, educated & recognise times have moved on instead. If you removed that statue as it represent parts of “english” history, firstly your wrong the welsh also served with Nelson, so are part of it, secondly on that basis we’d have to also remove all the castles built in wales by english kings like caernarfon castle. Which is ridiculous. I’m sure it wasnt the english king’s intention to unite the welsh in a common goal when he built it but he did, and i bet he didnt intend for it to provide jobs for local people or to boost the welsh economy...they do through tourism and many other local businesses benefit from it too. Lets not be ignorant of our past, be educated and recognise its a part of history and stumbling blocks of where & who we are today.

Just leave them alone and let people come to their own conclusions.

We should let our artists imagine the past. Personally, not being any kind of artist, I would commission a certain number (take your pick, 1282, 1066 etc) of small hammers and let some people hack away at the inscription until it could be replaced by a new one. Repeat every generation in an everlasting inheritance to pass on to our children and our children's children.

They should serve as a reminder of a colonial past so that future generations learn the true human cost of empire It would also be prudent to offer them back to England for their preservation but the important question for us to consider is that of whether welsh artifacts such as the Mold gold cape, held in the British Museum( otherwise known as the empire evidence locker) would be returned to Wales when we achieve independence.