I love the statue that has replaced the slave trader

The statue was taken down at about 5am this morn. The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, rightly says that there needs to be a discussion amongst Bristol people as to whose statue should go on that plinth. There have been several nominations and 10,000 signatures gathered for one activist, Paul Stephenson, a Bristol Civil Rights Campaigner who was instrumental in paving the way for the first Race Relations Act in 1965...... but he is in his 80s and his family say he doesn't want a statue.

It needs to be of someone who has worked hard for the city, not a statue of a random protester whose name means nothing. Or ..... as mentioned by Grandad1943 use any money to help alleviate poverty in the city amongst all the races living there, and just put a small plaque on the plinth instead.

Oh I had completely missed that Trisher I didnt realise it was that artist. I loved the statue of Alison Lapper.

Ah I see when your statements are questioned deflect by bringing in irrelevancies. There's a thread about Boris if you want to praise him. As for the statue if enough people ask for it it will be put back.

Am sure that I once read that Bristol had a black mayor .. twice voted in, who came from a slave background ( possibly late 18 early 19th century?) Possibly a statue of him would be a good thing.

We have a black mayor at the moment.

I don't think the statue cost Bristol anything- Marc Quinn and his team installed it. If they had any sense they would have left it for a time. Why another statue of a man? Women are severely underrepresented in statues. Most of them are Queen Victoria.

lemongrove

Very true Grandad43 what has been done for workers by this government has been brilliant, although from the constant armchair carping from some on forums you would think that everyone had been left to starve!

Well said Lemongrove, for I am a pragmatist and a realist and will accept what I have for a lifetime believed in from whatever political quarter it may come from.

All those on the left of politics in Britain should be applauding what has taken place in Britain in recent months and not standing on tribal politics for the sake of standing on tribal politics.

It's just the number of deaths that went with it that is fairly hard to swallow.

Sparklefizz

We have a black mayor at the moment.

Yes, I know, but the black mayor from so long ago may be a more worthy figure.

the suffragettes alienated many people at the time by their tactics. It was WWI that led to women having the vote.

trisher, the statue was a severe safety hazard and therefore either had to be secured at considerable cost or taken down.

It was also causing serious arguments between people walking across the city centre. Doubtless, with many bars and restaurants etc in that area much more serious trouble may well have broken out adjacent to the statue at the weekend.

Do BLM supporters really wish to hand such a gift as this statue to the extreme right in Britain, for that is what it was?

Of course they alienated people, change is deeply uncomfortable, gay rights organisations alienated people but they facilitated change.

Yes, flopen, but women were still expected to vote as their husbands instructed them.

Do as you are told or we threaten you with the far right.

The statue was a safety hazard? How? Was it actually a robot? Does it kneel on people's necks if they get too close?

Did Marvin Rees actually say on BBC Radio 5 Live that “ running around provoking debate without any awareness of the potential consequences of that debate is not OK”? If he’s not careful he will end up being cancelled. That may be no bad thing.

Starblaze

The statue was a safety hazard? How? Was it actually a robot? Does it kneel on people's necks if they get too close?

What a rediculas post, although not to be unexpected from those who support the BLM leadership.

It is all good the forces of law and order remove the statue. The drama of the statue is still proceeding, and what matters is the drama is making people aware of what they had not been aware of.

Some art is performative art. The original statue had been allowed to remain in situ for so long because of a deficit in public consciousness. The purpose of art is to rectify deficits in consciousness.

flopen it had very little to do with WW1 (although this was claimed at the time). In fact women very nearly got the vote several times before 1914, the main reason for the Bills supporting this being defeated or talked out was the desperation of the men to cling on to power. Had war not broken out it would very likely have been granted in 1914 anyway. Without the suffragettes and the women's suffrage organisations it wouldn't even have been on the agenda.

Marvin Rees was on local radio this morning and said the artist was completely unaware of what is happening in Bristol. He had a conversation with him and asked him about several well publicised things which had taken place and he had no idea about them. Marc Quinn may be well known in London - unheard of in Bristol.

By the way the statue is not "in the skip" it was carefully removed and is now at the museum waiting for the sculptor to either collect it or donate it to their collection.

Yes, flopen, but women were still expected to vote as their husbands instructed them.
How does that work when you vote in private?

Fair enough trisher I didn't know that.

But, when you think of the Welfare State, was that achieved by activism? No. I think claiming activism as a necessary force for good is wrong. I dare say the IRA thought that they had right on their side when they did the Birmingham pub bombings.

You might think this is far off the mark, but activism is dangerous. The activists speak only for themselves and their friends. They have no interest in anything beyond that, and will go to great lengths to put down anybody who doesn't buy into their vision (see BLM).

Activists are human beings flopen so they are difficult, imperfect people as are the rest of us.

Yes. I perfect reason to not place any importance on what they do or say where it doesn't feed into the Democratic process. But instead bullies and intimidated opposition.

Like TRAs. I'm sure they think they're in the right.

A perfect not I perfect

Expecting people to present in some impossible perfect way is partly why things have become so tribal I imagine some of the suffragettes were a pain in the arse, as were some of the campaigners for gay rights. And? Someone up thread complained because one of the.protestors was wearing an Adidas top and the hypocrisy of it. I am a hypocrite about a thousand times a day. Our expectations of people and our response when they dont think as we do is troubling.