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My dad fought the Nazis and I stood against the National Front and the BNP. I hate racism with every fibre of my body.

But blood has been spilled in ­Charlottesville because a politician wanted to remove a statue of a ­military figure from the American Civil War.

By wanting to tear down the figure of General Robert Lee, the local mayor has unintentionally relit the burning hatred and racism that has smouldered for decades.

Trump’s attempt to draw a moral equivalence between white supremacists and anti-fascists was pathetic, ignorant and ­inflammatory.

But he had a point on one issue: Where do you stop when taking down a statue?

(Image: Getty)

General Lee, as leader of the Confederate Army, fought Lincoln’s United States, who wanted to abolish slavery.

But in a letter to his wife, he described slavery as a “moral and political evil”.

He also opposed statues of Confederate military figures being erected after the conflict ended, feeling it would “keep open the sores of war”.

As Trump pointed out, ­President George Washington was a slaveholder. So should they rename the US capital?

What about Nelson Mandela? He fought apartheid to become President of South Africa. But there are those who say he was a terrorist who led a guerrilla army that killed a soldier.

I was proud to give permission for a statue in his image to be erected in Parliament Square.

I had a run-in with then London Mayor Ken Livingstone on this. He wanted it on a plinth in Trafalgar Square.

I argued that Mandela should overlook the House of Commons. When Mandela unveiled it, he told me he loved the fact he wasn’t on a pedestal out of reach. He could ­literally be with the people.

But should we now tear down Mandela’s statue because of his “terrorist” past?

(Image: Getty)

And what about Oliver Cromwell, who won the English Civil War, executed the King, became Lord Protector and killed 10,000 Irish citizens?

When I travelled to Bristol, I spoke with young black kids who were angry there was no statue commemorating their past. There is one for Edward Colston, a local MP and slave trader from Bristol.

This week someone attached an unofficial plaque to it saying “Bristol – Capital of the Atlantic Slave Trade” adding that “it commemorates the 12,000,000 enslaved of whom 6,000,000 died as captives”.

But those children now have a fantastic mayor in Labour’s Marvin Rees, who is black.

Statues are a testament to our history. Good or bad.

But as we saw in Charlottesville, threatening to tear them down only reopens the bitter wounds of

the past.

So let the elements wither away these relics with the passage of time. Instead let’s focus on the future, not the past.

The monuments to be proud of would be a more tolerant society, social justice and world peace.

They would last longer than granite, marble or metal ever could.