As I’ve said in the past I am rarely comfortable with ‘direct action’ …
hopefully now other local authorities will take public opinion on board and take appropriate action before the populace/electorate becomes irate at having been fobbed off over and over again … 🤞
Put it to the vote before any action to remove statues, rename streets etc. Require a vote by more than 50% of the electorate (not just those who vote) in favour of the proposed action. That's the only way to get a true measure of public opinion. 'Public opinion' is not always voiced by those with the biggest mouths.
It wasn't carried out that way for Brexit though. 17.4m voters out of a 46.5m electorate were enough to seal the fate for the rest of us. That one should always have been an assumed remain for non-voters IMO.
Speaking of direct action though; It's been one year since the failed coup in the US. Direct action doesn't get much more direct or illegal. A few people have been given jail time for their actions but no political ringleaders have been held to account. 40% of Americans still believe Trump won too
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
When I was growing up in Greenock, there were still 3 sugar refineries there. Who used to cut the can which started off those refineries? Should we dismantle The Pyrmanids in Egypt because they were built by slaves?
Colston wasn't the only Englishman to profit from the slave trade. He was a very prominent slaver, not just a part of the system - very much a leader and also a vehement advocate and defender of it. Bristol is not the only British city to have made money from the Atlantic slave trade but it made some of the biggest profits and unlike London, which also made a lot of money from slavery, it's current size and status is largely down to slaving. The fact that there were many others doesn't absolve that one. Whataboutism provides a shield for those who want to maintain the status quo and frustration at the obstruction and inertia is ultimately what led to the actions of those who pulled down the statue. Setting a very high bar for some notional democratic process does the same. The aim, for years, was to get Colston's statue either moved to the city museum or kept in situ with a better explanation. The MVs blocked all attempts at either. The Colston Hall is still there - that part of Bristol's history hasn't been 'obilterated', just renamed. The hall I went to for concerts when I was a child has been pulled down and redeveloped as luxury seaside apartments - THAT has been obliterated. Why, if we were the victims of an enslaving power, would we chose to demolish the assets that power created for us? Now if you want to talk about Beckford's Tower, that's a different matter. But there again, if you renamed it, you remove the association. You don't have to take it down (like the Hall). You can't do that with a statue. Are there any statues in England or China, in Britain or in India to the prominent members of the East India Company? If there are, then the burghers of those places need to have a hard think about them. Those of Cecil Rhodes and his ilk are also at risk of criminal damage if the owners of the statues don't take a more conciliatory line than the MVs of Bristol.
And by the way, are there any other cities where the descendants of slave traders still have civic power in the way the Bristol Merchant Venturers do?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We have just been shopping not for food either 😱 We have just bought a new Dvd / hard drive recorder and a new computer printer. The reason it's a curmudge, couldn't get either of the old ones repaired, and certainly for the printer cheaper anyway. The EU are bringing in laws to make mfcrs make things more easily repaired. AH but we've left now so we won't benefit. 😡
Couldn't afford repairs.
Autumn time washing machine started playing up, so my wife called the manufactures,
she was quoted £120 callout fee, £199 to £250 for eletronic board and£25 for door hinge,
She bought a brand new machine. £499, elsewhere , Cu==y= less £40 discount.
10 year parts guarantee, but at the moment a £129 call out charge.
It's not worth the hassle, dump the rubbish, and the scrap men took away the old machine!
As said, there's a hell of a lot more to take account of - history is there - we should be making use of it to benefit all of us. Doesn't appear to have sunk in unfortunately.
Unless the machine is under guarantee/warranty why would you contact the manufacturers for a repair?
We have a very good local chap who used to work for Hotpoint and now has his own business repairing Hotpoint and Indesit machines. I’ve never paid him more than £100 for a repair, if that, including callout. There are small firms like his all over the country repairing washing machines, dishwashers etc.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think you should be renamed @raisingirl! I suggest - reasongirl! Lots of places have been renamed @Lizzie27 many for non-political reasons and mostly to do with sponsorship. The Hammersmith Odeon was originally the Gaumont Palace. Now it is the Eventim Apollo as Eventim sponsor it. Same as the Millenium Dome - now the O2 arena. Sponsorship now gets multinationals names on buildings, in sporting events, on footballers shirts... Shell - one of the world's largest polluters - no longer sponsors the National Gallery, much to environmentalists' delight. I guess companies dealing in filth and human misery will always seek to whitewash their name through spending their money through some kind of philanthropic gesture. Apologists for those who earned their fortunes through the slave trade always bring up the Egyptians and the Romans. But Egyptians and Italians are not persecuted today as those whose more recent ancestors were traded for profit are. The colour bar only ended in the 1960s in this country - but even now people of colour are discriminated against.
My home city, Liverpool, is another place which benefited from slavery.
Four years ago I took my two nieces (then aged 16 and 20) to the slavery museum. They were totally overwhelmed. And they could not believe how little of this history had been covered at their school.
If you are ever in the city it's well worth a visit.
all town cities which processed suger tobacco etc were pretty deeply involved in slavery. The ships which used to bring the sugar from the Carribean often went back with slaves
Posts
Should we dismantle The Pyrmanids in Egypt because they were built by slaves?
Bristol is not the only British city to have made money from the Atlantic slave trade but it made some of the biggest profits and unlike London, which also made a lot of money from slavery, it's current size and status is largely down to slaving.
The fact that there were many others doesn't absolve that one. Whataboutism provides a shield for those who want to maintain the status quo and frustration at the obstruction and inertia is ultimately what led to the actions of those who pulled down the statue. Setting a very high bar for some notional democratic process does the same.
The aim, for years, was to get Colston's statue either moved to the city museum or kept in situ with a better explanation. The MVs blocked all attempts at either.
The Colston Hall is still there - that part of Bristol's history hasn't been 'obilterated', just renamed. The hall I went to for concerts when I was a child has been pulled down and redeveloped as luxury seaside apartments - THAT has been obliterated.
Why, if we were the victims of an enslaving power, would we chose to demolish the assets that power created for us? Now if you want to talk about Beckford's Tower, that's a different matter. But there again, if you renamed it, you remove the association. You don't have to take it down (like the Hall). You can't do that with a statue.
Are there any statues in England or China, in Britain or in India to the prominent members of the East India Company? If there are, then the burghers of those places need to have a hard think about them. Those of Cecil Rhodes and his ilk are also at risk of criminal damage if the owners of the statues don't take a more conciliatory line than the MVs of Bristol.
And by the way, are there any other cities where the descendants of slave traders still have civic power in the way the Bristol Merchant Venturers do?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When my sons freezer died on Christmas Eve, they brought another out to him straight away.
Lots of places have been renamed @Lizzie27 many for non-political reasons and mostly to do with sponsorship. The Hammersmith Odeon was originally the Gaumont Palace. Now it is the Eventim Apollo as Eventim sponsor it. Same as the Millenium Dome - now the O2 arena. Sponsorship now gets multinationals names on buildings, in sporting events, on footballers shirts...
Shell - one of the world's largest polluters - no longer sponsors the National Gallery, much to environmentalists' delight.
I guess companies dealing in filth and human misery will always seek to whitewash their name through spending their money through some kind of philanthropic gesture.
Apologists for those who earned their fortunes through the slave trade always bring up the Egyptians and the Romans. But Egyptians and Italians are not persecuted today as those whose more recent ancestors were traded for profit are. The colour bar only ended in the 1960s in this country - but even now people of colour are discriminated against.
Four years ago I took my two nieces (then aged 16 and 20) to the slavery museum. They were totally overwhelmed. And they could not believe how little of this history had been covered at their school.
If you are ever in the city it's well worth a visit.
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/international-slavery-museum
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
The ships which used to bring the sugar from the Carribean often went back with slaves