A better solution therefore is to cast the whalebones in bronze or concrete and accept that the real ones must go to the Whitby Museum. Whaling is, of course, an important part of Whitby’s amazing history but the key word is ‘history’. Would anyone wish to fill the streets with the stench of melting blubber, bubbling in trying pots, to commemorate Whitby’s past? The world has long since moved on from killing whales for their blubber or to make corsets from their baleen. Whilst the terrorists were given “letters of comfort” and immunity, why are our veterans not given the same protections?