So much for the pledge to give Bristolians say over statue fate

JOIN THE DEBATE ON THE ISSUES OF THE DAY WITH LETTERS

LETTER writer Doug Henderson called my letter criticising Prof David Olusoga’s support for the unlawful and undemocratic toppling of the statue of Edward Colston and dumbing down of his story a rant (which it wasn’t), and then misrepresented what I said.

His letter suggested that I wanted the statue to stay as it was, whereas it is clear from my letters that I support the adding of a second plaque to the Colston statue to openly, rather than hiding it away in a museum, explain his role in the slave trade and how this partly funded his philanthropy in Bristol and elsewhere.

The boss of Historic England and the Culture Minister have both recently supported this “retain and explain” approach to contested statues, rather than removal.

Indeed, I was one of the key members of the public who worked with the council-led project to agree the wording for this plaque.

Unfortunately, in March 2019 just before this plaque was to be attached, the Mayor stepped in and called for a rewording which never materialised, and the Mayor has now opportunistically used the unlawful toppling as an excuse to relegate the damaged statue to a museum where it is to be surrounded by the protesters’ placards.

So instead of ‘retain and explain’ we have the Mayor pandering to the topplers and their dumbing down of the Colston story. So much for his pledge to give Bristolians the say over its fate.

Doug’s efforts to justify the toppling as ‘ democratic’ are beyond the pale and an insult to Bristolians who believe in real democracy, and abide by its rules and the law.

The flouting of the social distancing rules at the height of the pandemic by the topplers, thereby putting lives at risk, compounds this.

Julian Hill Knowle