There is a vacant plinth in the city just crying out for deserving suitors

SO Marvin Rees’s farewell speech cost Bristol taxpayers over £5,000; took place at Bristol Beacon, and included TV historian (your description) David Olusoga.

I cannot think of a more fitting venue and pairing for such an event. No doubt Marvin and David felt very comfortable and proud in the renamed and expensively refurbished building, especially as it is no longer called the Colston Hall. A real triumph for them.

Somehow they just looked right there – two wealthy middle-class men in a swish new venue...

Seeing the two of them together reminded me that whatever else they have done in their careers I will always associate them with the Colston fiasco.

The wording on the plinth delay; the subsequent toppling of the statue with no police intervention; the anarchy on the streets of Bristol, chucking it in the harbour, the cost of fishing it out again and renovating it to its vandalised state; the support of David Olusoga, who said in the Post he wished he had joined the protesters and later supported the Colston Four in court; the protest organiser who is now in prison for fraud, spending money on herself while Colston spent a lot of his on helping Bristolians; the sight of Colston laid out in a shed and the dispute between Marvin and the Colston Four about the ‘exhibition’ contents; the phoney renaming of everything with Colston on it. I could go on.

I don’t think either man came out of this well as Marvin, in calling the Colston Four ‘white and middle class,’ revealed a certain prejudice, and David as a historian, supporting the destruction of a historical relic and taking Colston’s life completely out of the context of the period he lived in and judging it by today’s standards. But I don’t know if any of this was covered in their cosy chat. I certainly won’t be watching it.

However, it did occur to me that Marvin and David could carve out new careers for themselves as they would both fit perfectly into the current ethos of the BBC – David is already there and Marvin could join him as presenters of Have I Got News For You, Question Time, or even joining the politicallyactive Gary Lineker on Political Match Of The Day.

This would increase their income even more so most of all I would like to see them as Bristol benefactors as there is a vacant plinth crying out for deserving suitors.

D Scadding

Bristol