Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Tag Archives: Cecil Rhodes

If tearing down the Colston statue is OK, then anything is OK as long as you can justify it to yourself

By Chris Bowers | Tue 9th June 2020 - 11:12 am

Embed from Getty Images
None of us was born yesterday! We all know the wheels of history don’t turn with gentle persuasion alone, sometimes it takes people to step beyond what’s permitted by the law before things really change. And yet there was something frightening about Sunday’s protests in Bristol that culminated in the tearing down the statue of Edward Colston.

Some Conservative MPs have described it as mob rule. In a way it was: a group of demonstrators got it into their heads that this was legitimate, and egged on by mutual encouragement, they toppled a public artefact and dumped it in the river. The police decided discretion was the better part of valour and let it go for pragmatic reasons. As it was ‘only’ a statue, perhaps it’s a bit prissy to say it’s lawbreaking (even though it was), and it was a crime against an inanimate object rather than a person, so it pales compared with violence against a person. But I suspect many liberals will feel queasy about it.

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Cecil Rhodes statue, Edward Colston and Edward Colston statue | 63 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

We need a healthy and free leadership debate (Rosemary Runswick)
Mathew on Monday: Davey has been given a second chance. Now he must show us what his leadership is for (Mathew Hulbert)
The decapitation strategy (Michael Taylor)
Welcome (belatedly) to my day: 12 October 2026 – a leadership challenge, or a challenge to the leadership?… (Mark Valladares)
Is Ed Davey toast? (Caron Lindsay)

Advert

Recent Comments

expats
This smacks of the party in the coalition years...Any criticism of Clegg went from "It's too early to change" to, "It's too late to change" without ever getting...
Jason Connor
Wealthy in the sense that they want to get rid of the triple lock and don't seem to support raising the personal allowance by the looks of things. Policies whic...
Graham Evans
I've not much to add to the points made in the article, or in the comments already made. However the decisive test for a leader at this stage of the political c...
David Allen
Let's analyse that Guardian leader: "The Tory economic pitch (tax cutting) is ... a clear bid to win back affluent southern voters. .... In the face of such ...
Roy Gregg
Hi Sir Ed. Thanks for your service, but it's time for you to retire....