CRITICAL MOMENT
◼PRIME MINISTER: WARNS: WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO TAKE FURTHER MEASURES
◼CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: WE’RE HEADING THE WRONG WAY
◼POLICE CHIEF FULL OF PRAISE FOR RESTRAINT OF PUB-GOERS UNDER NEW LAWS ◼CORONAVIRUS LATEST INSIDE ON
ANEW history commission set up in the wake of the toppling of the Bristol statue of Edward Colston has been criticised for having an “extreme lack of Bristolians”.
Mayor Marvin Rees announced the setting up of the commission within a day or so of the toppling of Colston’s statue back in June, and after a couple of initial preparatory meetings, the commission, called ‘We Are Bristol’, has now met for the first time.
With eight commissioners named – although another four could yet be added – critics said the commission is full of academics, and there’s a lack of local history experts and of the people who campaigned for years to raise awareness of Bristol’s role in the slave trade and the truth about Edward Colston.
The council and the Mayor said the commission was initiated ‘after the events of this summer’ and its work will ‘include the history of slavery as well as the full scope of events that have impacted the city’.
A council spokesperson said: “The commission will include the building and removal of the Colston statue as a departure point and it will also consider the growth of education, the struggles of workers for pay and working conditions, and the Chartists and suffragettes campaigning for emancipation.
“The key roles of wars, protests, the harbour and the docks, manufacturing and industry, research and innovation, transport, slum clearances, housing, modern gentrification, migration and faith in the development of the city will also be within the commission’s scope,” he added.
“The commission will work with citizens and community groups to develop these themes and ensure that everyone in the city can share their views and build a fuller picture of how the city has grown and developed over the years,” he added.
Mr Rees attended the first formal meeting of the group, but will not be a commissioner going forward. He said the commission’s work will be an ‘important step in helping us all live with difference’.
“Everyone experiences the results of our past differently,” he said.
“The commission will help us all build an improved shared understanding of Bristol’s story by learning the origins of our beginnings and our journey, contending with events and their meanings, and making sure we share the stories with generations to come.
“This work will be an important step in helping us all live with difference,” he added.
There is no one involved in the commission from the Countering Colston group, a group set up in 2015 by a coalition of politicians, campaigners and historians, to raise awareness and challenge the way the city venerated Edward Colston and his legacy.
There is also no one involved from the Bristol Radical History Group, a large group of local historians and writers, who have – in the absence of more traditional, mainstream history telling local stories – researched and written their own histories of otherwise untold stories from Bristol’s history, like the Fishponds workhouse.
Two members of the Radical History Group, Mark Steeds and Roger Ball, have just written a history of Bristol’s involvement in slavery - dating back to the days when local merchants traded in English and Irish slaves from Bristol to Ireland 1,000 years ago, to the city’s heavy involvement in the transatlantic slave trade from the end of the 18th century.
Mr Steeds said while he didn’t think he should be on the commission, there were others who should be, including Prof Steve Poole, from UWE, who runs the Regional History Centre.
He said: “The current make-up of the Commission appears to be academic-heavy and local-historianlight, with an extreme lack of Bristolians featured.
“My big beef is that a memorial to the victims of enslavement, with possibly an accompanying interpretation centre, doesn’t seem to be on the agenda at all.
“A proper appraisal of the issues is necessary but action needs to be taken sooner rather than later in order to address divisions in the city and to bring communities together.”