Tell Me Something............Anything!

[Macca]

The statue was erected to celebrate Colston's philanthropy in Bristol. The source of his philanthropy was conveniently not mentioned on the plaque on the statue's plinth. But for those who do know about the history and for those of African heritage, the presence of a public statue must have appeared to be an obscenity.

There have been numerous petitions to have the statue removed - all were rejected by the City Council. Yes it was criminal damage and the 'Colston 4' received a trial by jury. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. I don't regard it as a shame: if anything it has opened up a discussion on who and why we should celebrate with a public statue.

I bet only a handful of people in Bristol knew who the statue was of and even less knew the history. I find the idea that a whole swathe of the population felt oppressed by it utterly ridiculous.

As far as putting up more statues that's just as absurd. Putting up statues of people should be a bygone relic of earlier times. I am all for keeping what is there as I'm a traditionalist in that sense, but I don't think we need any more of them.

By all means put a plaque up detailing their history, good and bad, for those who are interested. But once you set a precedent that you can just go and pull down anything that you personally don't like, or don't agree with, and there will not be any consequences to that, you're in trouble. And that's what this verdict does.

[Mikeandvan]

These activists would rather focus their efforts on long dead causes rather than tackle the rather less simplistic and somewhat grittier issue of modern day slavery. Either that or they invent issues like 'institutional racism' to poke the masses with. I just wonder whether this is really all about them and making themselves appear morally superior. Besides, the logic of statue pulling is that once you start you just can't stop.

[Macca]

Statue of Marcus Aurelius - Roman Emperor. Stands on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Presided over a regime that had millions in slavery, will we be having this down too?





Some of those slaves were British. Did I feel oppressed walking past it? No. Should I have done?

If I did, would it be fine for me to just smash it down? (It's only a copy mind, the real one is in a museum).

Like many 'woke' concepts, once you start to follow them to their logical conclusions it becomes apparent that they are very silly.

[Pigmy Pony]

I'm surprised the Des O'Connor fan club haven't chucked this into Morecambe Bay by now. Eric & Ernie's piss-taking was relentless.

In my view the Colston statue is now just where it needs to be. But the "Colston 4" aren't. And I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that some of the jury were made to feel that finding them guilty might be seen as racist. The "woke" brigade will stop at nothing to get their own way imo.

[struth]

Statue of Marcus Aurelius - Roman Emperor. Stands on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Presided over a regime that had millions in slavery, will we be having this down too?





Some of those slaves were British. Did I feel oppressed walking past it? No. Should I have done?

If I did, would it be fine for me to just smash it down? (It's only a copy mind, the real one is in a museum).

Like many 'woke' concepts, once you start to follow them to their logical conclusions it becomes apparent that they are very silly.

absolute bastard!!

[walpurgis]

I originally thought 'The Colston 4' was a skiffle group.

[Macca]

I thought 'Hatfield And The North' was a road sign.

[struth]

i might add, that although those statues, that dont bother me much, were fine when put up i guess, but nowadays should mostly be down.. maybe not all of course, but many. i mean you can take things too far, and being supremely offended by a guy who died100yrs + ago is a bit pointless. they were different times, but as i said many nowadays have outlasted their usefulness

[Pigmy Pony]

I thought 'Hatfield And The North' was a road sign.

It is

[struth]

hatfield?