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Bristol isn't the city of my birth. It isn't even the city where I grew up, but it was the nearest major urban centre to Cheddar and I could get there on a bus and I hung out there a bit as a youngster.
It's now one of my favourite cities to do comedy in and I feel I have an affinity with the place. I love Bristol and I love Bristolians. There must be some cunts living there, but I haven't met them. It's one of the best places in the world.
And I couldn't be more proud of Bristol than I am today. The Colston name has hung over the city for too long. As a kid I had no idea who the Colston of Colston Hall was, but since the 90s when I've occasionally played this venue it's felt weird that it's named after someone so heavily involved in the slave trade. Sure he spent a lot of money on the city, but where did that money come from? Oh… yeah. Not the greatest guy.
People have been trying to rename the venue and get rid of the statue for many years, so it's a thrill to see the people finally make the decision properly and throw that statue into the depths where it belongs and where I hope it can stay. Sure, I don't generally want mobs taking things into their own hands, but this statue is a symbol for something that hangs over the city like a lingering 17th Century fart and to get rid of this way shows the people of the city are acknowledging the mistakes of the past and the present and showing their support for every member of this multicultural city. Except maybe the ones who think there should be statues of slave-traders.
I've seen some terrible reaching arguments on Twitter that attempt to oppose the action. I guess the fact that it's breaking the law is the only one that has any kind of validity, but then civil disobedience is the way that many bad laws have been overthrown and it seems odd to be more upset about the destruction of a thing (and it's not even really destroyed and it could go back up again with a bit of repair, but I'd love to meet the person brave enough to do that) than the destruction of lives. But the idea that it's destroying history is crazy. It's notable that the crowd did not burn down the Colston Hall or (as far as I know) take part in any other notable destruction of property. Buildings can be renamed. Statues are put up solely to honour people. They are not left up for historical value, which is why you don't see any statues of Hitler in Germany or Saddam Hussein in Iraq and why Jimmy Savile's gravestone was smashed to bits. They end up in museums sometimes as a reminder of history and usually with some context. They don't sit in the middle of cities without even any sign of condemnation.
Bristol is a multi-cultural city. If you find it more offensive that that statue was pulled down than the fact it's been standing in the centre of town for so long, then that says something about you and your priorities. Don't try and hide that behind indignation about something else.If you find yourself defending a slave trader then you might just be on the wrong side of history.
Do we pull down all statues of people who've done something wrong? It depends what they did (cf Hitler and Jimmy Savile) and what exactly the statue is commemorating about their life. Maybe, maybe not. Might be worth a discussion. But there's plenty of people we can have statues of that aren't a reminder of the worst things that we've done. Let's not forget the people who did the terrible things and write them out of history. I want people to remember Colston. I just don't want him smiling down on the city like he's a fucking champion. I'd happily see the statue reinstated in a the middle of a new work of art that depicts his statue being torn down, for example. Because that act is something that the city should be proud of. It's an act of contrition. But we don't want anyone forgetting what this city and many of our cities were built on.
I hope we can live in a country and a world that starts looking forwards and not backwards and moves into this century, rather than dreaming of living one, two or three centuries ago. Things need to change, things need to be fairer.
It will take time of course, but I hope this will be remembered as a great step forward for a great city.
