monkey statue isn’t racist.Bedwetters at Hartlepool Borough Council are worried that the popular monument could offend people following the Black Lives Matter protests and scrutiny over statues.According to local folklore, a monkey that washed ashore in the north-eastern town after the wreck of a ship during the Napoleonic Wars was hanged as a French spy.People from Hartlepool are fond of the tale, which been the subject of songs, plays and books and the town’s football club mascot is a monkey called H’Angus.But local authority bosses are worried that this story may give the impression the town is “unfriendly to foreigners”.And despite the council noting that the story of the monkey being hanged is “not a factual event”, work is now.
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