Latest news with #Colston
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Colston statue toppling shows 'history isn't static'
For hundreds of years, Edward Colston was celebrated and honoured by many in his home city of Bristol, but an anti-racism protest held in the city on 7 June 2020 changed that in the most dramatic way. The toppling of his statue five years ago today made headlines around the world, forcing Bristolians to examine the legacy of the 17th Century slave years, his prominence in Bristol in the form of the city-centre statue and multiple locations bearing his name sparked controversy. Born into a merchant's family, Colston went on to build his own business in London trading in slaves, cloth, wine and found wealth through his work and later became an official of the Royal African Company, which held the monopoly in Britain on slave is believed to have transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas between 1672 and 1689. When Colston died in 1721, he left his wealth to churches and hospitals in Bristol. A portion of it was also used in founding two almshouses and a legacy continued to live on, with his name and face appearing on various city streets, buildings and memorials. The beginning of the end for Colston's close relationship with Bristol began thousands of miles away in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May, were called to a grocery store to reports of a 46-year-old man allegedly paying for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. That man was George police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest. Mr Floyd's pleas of "I can't breathe" as he died sent shock waves around the world - including towards Lives Matter protests sprung up across the world, calling for an end to racism and police Floyd: What happened in the final moments of his lifeChauvin was convicted of Mr Floyd's murder along with three other officers - Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng - who were convicted of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. The Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol attracted an estimated 15,000 people who gathered on College Green before heading down to Colston Avenue, where the bronze statue was erected in honour of the slave trader in 1895. On the day of the protest, the figure was covered up with a canvas material. It had already been targeted by egg-throwers, but the canvas was later torn off by protesters saying they wanted to look Colston in the eyes. Shortly after the cloth was removed, three protesters climbed up to the statue and attached ropes to its head. To roars of celebration from the crowd, they pulled on the ropes and 30 seconds later the statue was on the ground. Many ran towards the fallen figure, jumping on it and kicking it. One protester placed his knee on the statue's neck, mirroring the actions of Chauvin during Mr Floyd's arrest. Other protesters climbed the empty plinth, chanting and holding anti-racism statue was later dragged the short distance over to the harbour, where it was dumped into the water. For many that was symbolic, as Bristol's waterways had plenty of links with the slave people - dubbed the Colston Four - were charged for their involvement in the toppling, but were later acquitted of criminal damage. The toppling of the statue was dramatic. Other change has been slower, but over the last five years, Colston's name has gradually started disappearing from the city. In fact three years before his statue was toppled, the city's largest music venue, Bristol Beacon - known formerly as Colston Hall - announced that it was considering dropping the link to Colston. Massive Attack, perhaps the most famous band from Bristol, had always refused to play the venue due to its name change proposal led to a debate, with bosses maintaining that the venue was named after the street it is located on, rather than the slave trader. There was no investment from Colston in building the of Bristolians were against the change, it should be noted, but on 23 September 2020, the Bristol Music Trust, which runs the venue, decided to go ahead with the schools in Bristol also implemented changes after the statue came School in Stapleton became known as Collegiate School, Colston's Girls' School became Montpelier High School and The Dolphin Primary School changed its logo from the Colston family crest. Karen Macdonald, head of public engagement on Bristol City Council's culture team, said the toppling was "symbolic".The statue was temporarily displayed at the M Shed museum in the city in 2021 after it was retrieved from the harbour. The council launched a public survey which more than 14,000 Bristolians responded to with "very clear wishes" of what they wanted for the statue's future. The majority of the responses called for the statue to be displayed in its damaged state, alongside balanced historical information and context about Colston's that is where you will find the Colston statue now, lying on its back in a glass case, surrounded by the real placards left behind by the protestors. Ms Macdonald said: "There is value in listening to different viewpoints and coming to an understanding, even if you can't agree with each other. "This isn't erasing history, this is recording history. History isn't something that can remain static and preserved - that moment was history in action. "It wasn't about lumps of cast metal," she added. Nothing has replaced the toppled statue, the plinth is still it does now feature an updated plaque reflecting Colston's involvement in slavery and telling the story of that dramatic day in June.
The Age
03-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Call that a political defection? Here are the deserters for the ages
Only the voluble Lidia Thorpe and the first woman to wear a hijab in parliament, Fatima Payman, who became a member of the exclusive club of those who've dared to abandon the Labor Party, readily spring to mind. Even the roll-call of MPs who famously made it to parliament using the purse strings of Clive Palmer before defecting have largely been forgotten, apart from Jacqui Lambie. These days, the Jacqui Lambie Network itself has a small list of those who fled or were expelled. We won't even get started on Pauline Hanson's One Nation, where expulsions, defections and meltdowns have become splendid entertainment over the years. The latest political defector is Dorinda Cox, a Greens senator from Western Australia until Monday evening when she was granted asylum within the Labor government. The headlines described this as a 'shock' defection. The main shock, you might think, was that she'd hung with the Greens for so long after this masthead reported last October that 20 staff had left her office in three years, with several lodging formal complaints alleging a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe. Allegations strongly denied by Cox and all since dealt with, of course. Regrettably, no one captured a video of Albanese, who has been at virtual war with the Greens, toasting himself with fruit of the vine and performing a triumphant jig through the halls of The Lodge. Loading The name Dorinda Cox will most likely fade to little more than a Labor number as she is absorbed within the unforgiving maw of major-party politics. You couldn't say that about Cheryl Kernot. Or Mal Colston. Or Peter Slipper. They remain forever enshrined as the grand champions of political absconding, largely because of the scandals that ensued. Kernot was the popular and high-achieving Leader of the Australian Democrats when she suddenly decamped to Labor in 1997, causing something akin to a political earthquake. It wasn't until after her political career flamed out a few years later that the backstage drama emerged. She wrote a book purporting to be her story of life in politics, which omitted to mention an elementary detail relating to Gareth Evans, Labor's marvellously volatile foreign minister much credited with facilitating Kernot's defection. Political journalist Laurie Oakes helpfully filled in the detail. Kernot and Evans had been in a secret, extramarital relationship for five years, including the period of the Democrats-Labor shuffle. The headlines barely paused for months. Kernot and Evans have since separately carved out successful post-politics careers. Colston was a time-serving Labor senator whose craven appetite for rorting the system, particularly travel expenses, was little known outside the party. Wily prime minister John Howard seduced Colston in 1996 with the juicy offer of deputy president of the Senate. Colston duly quit Labor to become an independent and, not long after, gave his treasured vote to Howard on contentious legislation. His former party assailed Colston with a fury rarely seen before or since. Labor senator Robert Ray called him the ' Quisling Quasimodo from Queensland '. Boxes of documents detailing Colston's years of rorting were mysteriously retrieved from a ceiling in a house in Queensland. The Sunday Age's Paul Daley exposed leaked details of Colston's monumental defrauding of the public purse. Colston was eventually charged with 28 counts of fraud, but they were not pursued after he revealed he was suffering from cancer. Colston retired from parliament in 1999 with superannuation reported to be worth up to $1.5 million and died in 2004, remembered as a Labor 'rat'. Slipper was a Liberal MP from Queensland, but quit the party (known by then as the Liberal National Party) in late 2011 to get the Labor Party's endorsement as Speaker of the House of Representatives. This unsurprisingly infuriated the Liberals. Because he became an independent, he deprived the party of the chance to expel him. At the same time, the former speaker, Harry Jenkins, returned to the floor of the House, giving Julia Gillard's hard-pressed minority government an extra vote. What was initially seen as a masterful switcheroo was managed by none other than Anthony Albanese, Gillard's chief strategist at the time. It looked less masterful when Slipper, who took to wearing a gorgeous old-time robe in the speaker's chair and parading weekly through parliament in full regalia, became mired in scandal over allegations he had sexually harassed a staffer, James Ashby, and misused Cabcharges. Loading The harassment charges were later dismissed and Slipper's initial convictions for misusing travel entitlements were set aside on appeal. But the political damage was done, particularly when text messages were read in parliament in which Slipper referred in the most vulgar terms to female genitalia. Given that he was supported by Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister – who deflected the issue by delivering her famous misogyny speech directed at Tony Abbott – the game was well and truly up. Slipper resigned in October 2012, and later became a bishop of an Australian branch of a breakaway Catholic Church established in Brazil.
Sydney Morning Herald
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Call that a political defection? Here are the deserters for the ages
Only the voluble Lidia Thorpe and the first woman to wear a hijab in parliament, Fatima Payman, who became a member of the exclusive club of those who've dared to abandon the Labor Party, readily spring to mind. Even the roll-call of MPs who famously made it to parliament using the purse strings of Clive Palmer before defecting have largely been forgotten, apart from Jacqui Lambie. These days, the Jacqui Lambie Network itself has a small list of those who fled or were expelled. We won't even get started on Pauline Hanson's One Nation, where expulsions, defections and meltdowns have become splendid entertainment over the years. The latest political defector is Dorinda Cox, a Greens senator from Western Australia until Monday evening when she was granted asylum within the Labor government. The headlines described this as a 'shock' defection. The main shock, you might think, was that she'd hung with the Greens for so long after this masthead reported last October that 20 staff had left her office in three years, with several lodging formal complaints alleging a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe. Allegations strongly denied by Cox and all since dealt with, of course. Regrettably, no one captured a video of Albanese, who has been at virtual war with the Greens, toasting himself with fruit of the vine and performing a triumphant jig through the halls of The Lodge. Loading The name Dorinda Cox will most likely fade to little more than a Labor number as she is absorbed within the unforgiving maw of major-party politics. You couldn't say that about Cheryl Kernot. Or Mal Colston. Or Peter Slipper. They remain forever enshrined as the grand champions of political absconding, largely because of the scandals that ensued. Kernot was the popular and high-achieving Leader of the Australian Democrats when she suddenly decamped to Labor in 1997, causing something akin to a political earthquake. It wasn't until after her political career flamed out a few years later that the backstage drama emerged. She wrote a book purporting to be her story of life in politics, which omitted to mention an elementary detail relating to Gareth Evans, Labor's marvellously volatile foreign minister much credited with facilitating Kernot's defection. Political journalist Laurie Oakes helpfully filled in the detail. Kernot and Evans had been in a secret, extramarital relationship for five years, including the period of the Democrats-Labor shuffle. The headlines barely paused for months. Kernot and Evans have since separately carved out successful post-politics careers. Colston was a time-serving Labor senator whose craven appetite for rorting the system, particularly travel expenses, was little known outside the party. Wily prime minister John Howard seduced Colston in 1996 with the juicy offer of deputy president of the Senate. Colston duly quit Labor to become an independent and, not long after, gave his treasured vote to Howard on contentious legislation. His former party assailed Colston with a fury rarely seen before or since. Labor senator Robert Ray called him the ' Quisling Quasimodo from Queensland '. Boxes of documents detailing Colston's years of rorting were mysteriously retrieved from a ceiling in a house in Queensland. The Sunday Age's Paul Daley exposed leaked details of Colston's monumental defrauding of the public purse. Colston was eventually charged with 28 counts of fraud, but they were not pursued after he revealed he was suffering from cancer. Colston retired from parliament in 1999 with superannuation reported to be worth up to $1.5 million and died in 2004, remembered as a Labor 'rat'. Slipper was a Liberal MP from Queensland, but quit the party (known by then as the Liberal National Party) in late 2011 to get the Labor Party's endorsement as Speaker of the House of Representatives. This unsurprisingly infuriated the Liberals. Because he became an independent, he deprived the party of the chance to expel him. At the same time, the former speaker, Harry Jenkins, returned to the floor of the House, giving Julia Gillard's hard-pressed minority government an extra vote. What was initially seen as a masterful switcheroo was managed by none other than Anthony Albanese, Gillard's chief strategist at the time. It looked less masterful when Slipper, who took to wearing a gorgeous old-time robe in the speaker's chair and parading weekly through parliament in full regalia, became mired in scandal over allegations he had sexually harassed a staffer, James Ashby, and misused Cabcharges. Loading The harassment charges were later dismissed and Slipper's initial convictions for misusing travel entitlements were set aside on appeal. But the political damage was done, particularly when text messages were read in parliament in which Slipper referred in the most vulgar terms to female genitalia. Given that he was supported by Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister – who deflected the issue by delivering her famous misogyny speech directed at Tony Abbott – the game was well and truly up. Slipper resigned in October 2012, and later became a bishop of an Australian branch of a breakaway Catholic Church established in Brazil.
Telegraph
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why the Supreme Court's trans ruling won't lead to an anti-woke backlash
SIR – Daniel Hannan's excellent article warns against an unforgiving anti-woke backlash, but I think he misses a crucial point ('The tide has not turned against woke. If there is a backlash it is an intolerant one', Comment, April 20). Although the more extreme forces of wokery will no doubt fight like terriers to maintain their grip on culture, the recent Supreme Court ruling that biological sex matters has simply reset the balance between them and the rest of us. The vast majority of British people are not xenophobic, racist, transphobic, homophobic thugs who need to be controlled and re-educated – which is how the woke mob portrays them. I suspect, therefore, that there will not be much of an anti-woke backlash. All that has changed is that it is once again possible for people with mainstream opinions to express them, and be protected by the law from persecution in doing so. The hysterical reaction is coming from people who can no longer intimidate, threaten and bully us, not from those relieved at the triumph of common sense. Alison Levinson Hastings, East Sussex SIR – In my experience, so-called liberal middle-class men are the culprits when it comes to unpleasant political encounters – having been rounded on, sworn at and called a racist in Bath city centre while canvassing for Ukip, and then noisily mocked on account of a Reform UK sign in my car window. I can therefore appreciate the reluctance of some women openly to support Reform (report, April 24). The good news is that there are plenty of women and young folk who are no longer intimidated by ignorant slurs and bias, and are using common sense to decide who is worthy of their vote. I saw evidence of this for myself at a meeting held in a remote Somerset village hall on one of the wettest nights in January. Just as the Brexit referendum result appeared to shock our smug, complacent establishment, in my view the results of next week's mayoral elections will demonstrate that democracy is still alive and kicking in Britain. Rosy Drohan Marksbury, Somerset SIR – The plaque on the empty plinth that formerly carried a statue of Edward Colston (Comment, April 20)misses out much that is relevant to the man, particularly the fact that he left equal sums of money to his long-term servants in 1720, one of whom was black. Colston was a highly successful merchant long before his involvement in the slave trade, which came about in 1680 when he became a director of the Royal African Company, which traded in gold, silver, ivory and slaves. In 1689 he was appointed deputy governor, a post he held for just one year. In the same year, he transferred most of his holdings in the company to the new King William III. Colston withdrew from the company completely two years later, and returned to private business. As far as I am aware, thereafter he did not own any slaves or have anything to do with the trade. Significantly, there is no record of Colston being involved in any philanthropic activity in Bristol until the year he resigned from the company. Having embraced philanthropy, Colston gave away, in Bristol alone, the equivalent of many millions of pounds to good causes, including the endowment of schools, hospitals, churches and almshouses. In London and elsewhere he matched these incredibly generous donations to good causes. All this suggests that Colston, a devout Christian, saw the error of his ways and attempted to atone for his sins. Amazing Grace was written by a repentant slave-ship captain; it includes the line '[I] was blind but now I see'. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I would suggest that Colston was also blind before seeing the light. All statues of him were intended to praise his philanthropy, not his previous involvement in the slave trade. Nicholas Young London W13
Telegraph
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Fury as ‘woke' Colston plaque condemns his ‘prominent role in slavery'
A new plaque on the empty plinth of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol condemns his 'prominent role in the enslavement of African people'. The plaque, installed on Wednesday evening, removes any mention of Colston as a 'benefactor' to the city. Instead, it emphasises his 'prominent role in the enslavement of African people', adding that the statue is now in 'the collections of Bristol City Council's museums'. It comes five years after the statue was toppled and dumped into the River Avon by Black Lives Matter protesters following the murder of George Floyd during the Covid lockdown. The plaque provoked criticism from Arron Banks, the Reform UK candidate for West of England, who branded it 'woke nonsense'. 'Colston was a complex character of his time, he made money from slavery and then donated nearly all of it back to good causes,' he told The Telegraph. 'He was a man of his time. The British were the first proper country to declare slavery illegal and enforce it worldwide with the British Navy. 'The Black Lives Matters idiots choose to celebrate the life of a criminal who held up pregnant women in the street as their hero. Their movement was exposed when their leaders pocketed the cash for themselves. 'As Mayor I'll pull the statue out of the river and put it back up. I'll then write to the cowardly governors at Colston Grammar and request they reinstate the name. We shouldn't be rewriting British or Bristol history for anyone. 'This woke nonsense has to end.' The new plaque reads: 'On 13 November, 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636-1721) was unveiled here. 'In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the celebration of Colston was increasingly challenged given his prominent role in the enslavement of African people. 'On 7 June 2020, the statue was pulled down during Black Lives Matter protests and rolled into the Floating Harbour. 'Following consultation with the city in 2021, the statue entered the collections of Bristol City Council's museums.' It sits below an original plaque from 130 years ago which describes Mr Colston as 'one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the city' and was agreed after several re-writes, drafts and arguments at City Hall between councillors. In November, Conservative city councillor Richard Eddy voted against the revision, calling it 'utterly shameful'. He said at the time: 'Deleting the reference to Edward Colston, one of Bristol's greatest sons, being a benefactor is outrageous – an utterly historical revision that is worthy of the Nazis.' At a meeting last year, Cllr Eddy described the people who pulled down the statue in 2020 as a 'mob of criminals and hooligans' for 'vandalising' a listed monument. The 'Colston Four', as they came to be known, openly admitted their involvement in removing the statue, insisting that they had committed no crime. They argued that their actions had been justified because the statue was a hate crime to the people of Bristol because of Colston's links to the slave trade. A lengthy police investigation eventually led to nine people being interviewed, five of whom were offered conditional discharges, while four were charged with criminal damage. The idea for another plaque to be attached to the plinth was never dropped, even after the statue was toppled in 2020, and was brought back to the council in 2023 and into 2024 by the then Labour administration, before councillors finally voted to approve it last November. The wording of the plaque was finally agreed after work by the Bristol Legacy Foundation, but councillors made changes and objected to it at several meetings in 2023 and 2024. It is the fourth plaque to be created for the plinth: one was fitted unofficially in the 2010s as part of protests against the celebration of Colston, while another was created but never installed due to the watering down of its wording.
