The Football Lads

He also received a vast amount of money from the government of the day in compensation for losses at the end of the slave trade . The loan that paid off the compensation to the slave traders was finally paid off in 2015 , yes 5 years ago , so ancestors of slaves in Bristol have been paying taxes that went to pay off the slave traders , get your head around that

 

To add to this - the RWM description of the debt we’re creating to pay for COVID19 as a scandal , do you really believe that in 50 years time our great grandchildren will care that we recklessly stopped people from starving?

in the last 20 years we’ve paid back the debts from both world wars and the slave trade. How many of us even knew?

 

Apparently there was a lot of discussion about a plaque detailing how his fortune was linked to the deaths of thousands of slaves, but the council couldn't agree the wording.

 

I've just been reading about some ex soldiers guarding a monument and it got me thinking about some of the black lads that I served with and how they would have dealt with some of these militant anarchist thugs. One in particular springs to mind (@Winker will know who I am talking about). I'd like to have heard the convincing argument he would have given them why it was not a good idea to deface the Cenotaph.

 

it was the Foreign Office that got defaced
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN23B36Q

 

That's right Helen. I believe the wording was changed a few years ago. Also in recent weeks 11,000 have signed the petition to have the statue removed. I can only speak for myself, but pre-lockdown I had to walk past that statue every day on my way to work. It is an imposing statue, it naturally looked down on passers-by, and it never made sense for it to remain in the city. If there was a Rolf Harris statue in Sydney would it have remained, for example? Bristol isn't proud of its past, but it doesn't need statues like this to be reminded. People know what happened. It's like Berlin, you dont see statues of Hitler. You arent rewriting history by taking down a statue of a man who has no right to be celebrated in this way and isnt representative of the city. In the last couple of years places are distancing themselves from the name. The next to change will be Colston Hall after its revamp, and hopefully street names will follow. There is an irony in the fact his statue now lies in the water where he transported slaves. I for one am glad I'll never have to walk past it again.

 

The debt amassed paying off slave traders was 40% of GDP. The COVID lending is nothing in comparison.

 

Yes he did, as did all of them, but again that was the way of the world back then not in 2020, as I said to RH we should learn from the past to educate the future, but none of that excuses the actions of the ‘protesters’ who pulled the statue down.

 

Doesn’t justify the actions from yesterday though does it?

 

Our Tommeh is off to Larndan next Saturday.

The odious wnker.

 

I agree Helen. No matter what the rights and wrongs of the system, tearing down all the Soviet statues, monuments, signs and the like in the former USSR would be a tragedy from a historical point of view. I'm glad that many of them remain (while fully understanding why many people wish that they didn't). Incidentally, after 1991, many street names and even city names in Russia returned to their pre-1917 versions.

 

I think a lot of people are more aware of who he was than before the statue was pulled down tbh. I've only been to Bristol once or twice, so I know of the Clifton suspension bridge but is slavery addressed in their museum I wonder? Obviously in Liverpool you have the museum and in Hull.

 

I was alluding to a hypothetical scenario where the lads I served with were guarding monuments sensitive / important to us. I've seen there has been some unwanted attention around the cenotaph so this would be an obvious choice for ex soldiers to stand in front of.

 

It wasn't ideal but people have had enough. I would rather the council had taken it down and stuck it in the Bristol Museum. But then I would argue that the statue itself doesn't justify Colston's actions. And I fear that it would never have come down peacefully as it's been contentious for years, petitions have been signed and nothing's ever been done other than to change the wording to acknowledge the link to slavery (the 'Merchant Venturers' didnt even want to acknowledge slavery on the latest placque).

 

I'm quite happy it got pulled down, and think it's a nice bit of symbolism.

 

I find it an interesting juxtaposition.

Lets riot about the death of a man who held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman whilst him and 6 of his friends robbed her - albeit who was reportedly turning his life around - and protest this by pulling down a statue erected to a great philanthropist because he also had a dodgy past.

I'm not picking a fight - I'm just highlighting the hypocrisy and double standards I find at every turn with progressives/BLM/climate warriors

 

The feeling within Bristol itself, as highlighted by another poster has been growing for a while. We dont live there, to my shame i didn't even know who Colston was before this weekend, i suspect many others especially those outside Bristol didn't either.

BLM isn't about one man though, likewise without getting into an argument go read the threads where super tyke was vocal, theres many excellent points from many posters highlighting this

 

I think we will have to respectfully agree to disagree, I’m not in any way condoning slavery or anything remotely attached to it. But IMO it doesn’t justify Criminal actions.

 

I worked for a company based in the South West for over 13 years and have literally hundreds of friends down there as a result of all race and sexual orientation and have to say not one of them has justified the actions yesterday in fact the opposite, they are disgusted and embarrassed that this has happened in their City. I would also add that some of them have backed the removal of the statue campaigns in the past.
Of course there is a caveat in that not all of them have posted and most of them are in the 30-50 age bracket, so a different generation/Social circle might feel different.

 

Neither need a statue.