Mayor: Toppling of Colston was not just about statue
THE Mayor of Bristol has told MPs that the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was not “all about the Colston statue”, but was also about lack of affordable housing, gentrification and social exclusion.
Marvin Rees spoke to parliament’s culture select committee on Tuesday morning, and told MPs some of the background context to the toppling of the statue, which caused headlines around the world back in early June this year.
Since the statue fell, a number of organisations and institutions within the city have reassessed their relationship with Edward Colston, and only this week, the students and staff at Colston’s Girls’ School voted to change the name of the school in Montpelier.
But in a wide-ranging discussion that covered the nature of statues, whether and how there should be a reassessment of historical figures who are venerated with statues but have dubious histories in this country, Mr Rees told MPs that he thought there was a wider context in Bristol to the statue coming down.
He was asked by one MP, Tory Giles Watling, whether the setting up of the We Are Bristol history commission would “avert further public disorder”.
“I certainly think that’s a valve, to alleviate pressure that builds up,” he told the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee.
“Actually hearing and listening to people and making people feel their voices are heard is massively important.
“Can I just say that I don’t think the Colston statue is all about the Colston statue.
“As I kept saying in a number of the interviews, the issues are a lot more complicated than that, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate,” he added.
“I think there’s a lot that’s been built up over the years, in terms of the people I saw participate; there will be issues housing, unaffordable housing, gentrification, feelings of being left behind by the national and international economy, and we have had a long-running question in the country about what is our national identity – back to the early 2000s I remember debates about ‘what does it mean to be British?’
“So this action happened within a context, it’s not just the action. I think the statue in many ways became a focal point for other frustrations.”
The Mayor spoke at length about Colston and the issue of statues more generally, and repeated to MPs many of the things he said publicly in interviews with national and international media, this summer – particularly around why the Colston statue wasn’t in his “top ten priorities” for the city when he became mayor in 2016.
On what comes after the toppling of the statue, he said the We Are Bristol history commission should see the Colston statue as a “launch point” rather than an “end point”.
“I’m keen to take on responsibility for the process, I’ve been very clear, I’m not making any decisions about what goes on the pedestal in place of Colston, and even around the Colston Hall, which is now Bristol Beacon,” he said.
“In Bristol we’ve now set up a history commission chaired by Prof Tim Cole from the University of Bristol. We have a philosopher on there, a history of trade unions, culture, media, but it’s a group of academics with the aim of actually bringing some discipline to take it to the realm of professionalism, but with contributions from the city.
“And with that raw material, bring that city conversation into a place where we’re better positioned to decide collectively on what we want to remember, and how we want to remember it.”