All roads lead to Rees

It’s been a year since Colston’s Floating Harbour splash made ripples around the world. The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, saw his popularity rise astronomically with media outside Bristol. A documentary called Statue Wars featuring him about Colston’s toppling is premiering on 10 June 2021.

A year ago, in June 2020, he gave 60 interviews to media all around the world — and five to his local favourites Ujima and BCFM. He was on Channel 4 news and while Krishnan Guru-Murthy pushed Rees on whether he would support the topplers being prosecuted for damaging the statue of a slave trader, the mayor would not answer (link).

All of a sudden, people had questions and Rees was, for the most part, happy to answer them.

That’s not how it had been up to that point, however, and discussion about Edward Colston in parliament, coinciding with the new documentary, has brought events back nearly full circle.

In the House of Commons, parliament is debating The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. On 27 May, 2021, Alex Cunningham Shadow Minister (Justice) said,

“I do not condone, and no Labour Member does, the criminal act that saw the statue removed in Bristol, but let us not forget that before the statue of Colston was toppled, many persistent attempts had been made to remove the statue peacefully. Even the…