WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tizer]

At some point you might have seen data for Elon Musk's private jet flying in and out of Bristol. Our government is helping him to find a site for construction of one of his `giga-factories'. It will be the largest factory in the UK. An old BAe location is in his sights.

[Whyperion]

Not Honda at Swindon ?

[Whyperion]

The evil they fight is bigger and has caused far more damage and death than Covid.

like war it is worse because it is intentional, and within our capacity to change

[Stanley]

I see the Andrew affair is on the boil again.
The BBC report finishes by saying "Prince Andrew's intentions remain unclear". I can help them, he will continue to wriggle on a very nasty hook.

[Stanley]

The ONS issuing a figure for total unexpected deaths, see THIS Guardian account of the report that the total under lockdown is 63,000. The inference being that many of these could be Covid related even though not officially attributed as such.

[Tizer]

Is it only me who has strong reservations about the wisdom of pulling down statues of people associated in the past with the slave trade? What's happening now reminds me of countries like Russia where certain people remove the evidence of the nation's past misdemeanours and atrocities. The statue of slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston, standing until now in Colston Avenue in the centre of Bristol, has been somewhere that tourist guides, teachers and parents could congregate to tell the true story of how Bristol benefited from the slave trade and also to explain how then, in the 1600s, slavery was seen in a very different light to now. Rather than pulling down the statue it would have been much better to have installed extra information boards to take advantage of the opportunity to tell the true story of Bristol. Let's not hide our past!

[Whyperion]

the consensus seems to be on re-location to internal museums, display plinths imply that the person is better and to be emulated?
Rhodes in Oxford I am less sure on, 'colonial explorer' or otherwise I do not think subjugation of africans was his whole priority, more England as a power getting its land over other european countries. The nations created well dis-respected historic 'tribal' divisions of land which is not good and has meant a good future for some places has not happened as it could have done.

[Big Kev]

Is it only me who has strong reservations about the wisdom of pulling down statues of people associated in the past with the slave trade?

No, you're not alone.

I also notice they've pulled Gone with the Wind from the major streaming platforms.

Let's just go down the historical negationism route, deny we ever did anything nasty...

[plaques]

Don't forget in the good old days of industrial revolution something we all admire because it made the UK great. The factory owners paid so little in wages that families gave up their children to be 'looked after' by the owners as a cheap slave labour. Later when the workers got a bit bolshie they gave them a pay rise but handed the kids back not that it was the right thing to do but because overall it was cheaper. The kids were still employed at below poverty rates. That was the world we lived in. Statues and he like are symbols of what went on and we should use them to make people aware of what happened and not hide it away to be forgotten about.

[chinatyke]

Don't forget in the good old days of industrial revolution something we all admire because it made the UK great. The factory owners paid so little in wages that families gave up their children to be 'looked after' by the owners as a cheap slave labour. Later when the workers got a bit bolshie they gave them a pay rise but handed the kids back not that it was the right thing to do but because overall it was cheaper. The kids were still employed at below poverty rates. That was the world we lived in. Statues and he like are symbols of what went on and we should use them to make people aware of what happened and not hide it away to be forgotten about.

Shhh! You'll upset the snowflakes!

[Stanley]

I agree with all of you about the statues particularly the point about using them to educate but it bothers me that when the mob demolished Saddam's statue in Baghdad I can't remember anyone complaining, indeed the US even helped with a crane.
Just had word from Perth that Laura is on her way to Pilbara at last!

[Cathy]

Sounds good Stanley, Laura will be able to warm up a bit. Overnight temps at the moment in the Pilbara region are roughly 10-18C, and Daytime temps 23-31C.
Nice

[Stanley]

She's very excited Cathy to be going out on the sharp edge of her paramedic career. It's well paid as well. I think she does a fortnight on call and then flies back for a fortnight of rest at home. It has been postponed several times but is a reality now. She has promised me pics! One thing is certain, it will not be a picnic!

[Marilyn]

Indeed. It will not be easy. You have to have strength to work in these areas...
( my step-son works in a remote aboriginal community, but not The Pilbara. He loves his work, but there is a lot to cope with. He is a pretty laid back type of fellow, but he has seen things that would deter most from signing up. He particularly hates the domestic violence.)

[Stanley]

The eagle has landed! Here's a pic she did just before they landed.

[Marilyn]

My personal thoughts about Australia’s outback is “ Why would you want to go there?!”
( I have been there and would not go again!)
There is not a blade of grass for hundreds of miles. The ants are huge, and the flies are thick. It is a miserable place.

[Tizer]

The vice-chancellor of Oxford University agrees with us on statues...
`Don't hide history, says Oxford head in statue row' LINK
"My own view on this is that hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment," Prof Richardson told the BBC. "We need to understand this history and understand the context in which it was made and why it was that people believed then as they did," she said. "This university has been around for 900 years. For 800 of those years the people who ran the university didn't think women were worthy of an education. Should we denounce those people? "Personally, no - I think they were wrong, but they have to be judged by the context of their time," said Prof Richardson.

[PanBiker]

In the same vein as hiding the history. Bristol Council have fished the statue out of the river and are going to put it into a museum with relevant notes. "After cleaning it up". Surely it should be left as it is, graffiti and all, as that is now a major part of the history in itself.

[Whyperion]

Don't forget in the good old days of industrial revolution something we all admire because it made the UK great. The factory owners paid so little in wages that families gave up their children to be 'looked after' by the owners as a cheap slave labour. Later when the workers got a bit bolshie they gave them a pay rise but handed the kids back not that it was the right thing to do but because overall it was cheaper. The kids were still employed at below poverty rates. That was the world we lived in. Statues and he like are symbols of what went on and we should use them to make people aware of what happened and not hide it away to be forgotten about.

I am reminded of Armley Mills in Leeds as an example. Most of the wife's family appeared employed in the worsted mills around Dewsbury from the ages of 14 in the late 1880s onwards, before that the family were agricultural labourers, they were educated, methodist and musical and some ended up in the entertainments circuits as jobbing musicians. But it is not only statues if could be worth checking whom we put on our banknotes.

[Stanley]

Putting right the wrongs of history is dangerous stuff. Think how many old wealthy families started their career as feudal lords with virtual slave labour and stolen land. The word slavery is only used by Reds like me who talk about wage slaves. In those days they didn't even have the wage. Do we go back and right that wrong? Dream on!
Laura got back to me again and in the pic above the feature in the far distance if you look carefully is one of the mines. I wonder how they get water? I shall have to ask her.

[Marilyn]

Probably have to carry the water out on their backs on their hands and knees, Stanley, after eating a mouthful of dust for breakfast.
It is a harsh land.
We had “water wars” at one place we stayed. We had set up camp well before others arrived, but folk with bigger vans turned up, stuck their chests out and demanded the tap was theirs! We backed off quietly, as we had some drinking water. Then they opened entire sides of their caravans, exposing washing machines and tumble dryers, and proceeded to do their washing!

[Cathy]

I noticed that the BBC (streaming service) has removed the Fawlty Towers episode ‘Don’t Mention The War’. A classic.
It is to be reviewed.

[Tizer]

In the same vein as hiding the history. Bristol Council have fished the statue out of the river and are going to put it into a museum with relevant notes. "After cleaning it up". Surely it should be left as it is, graffiti and all, as that is now a major part of the history in itself.

I have to disagree with that - statues should be kept clean and in their original state. The reason I say that is because one of my father's uncles had, among other council tasks, the job of regularly cleaning the statue of Queen Victoria on the Boulevard in Blackburn!
Here's a 13 minute video of Princess Louise's visit to Blackburn in 1905 to unveil the statue. The first 6 minutes are the procession to the Boulevard. Ignore the error lower down the web page which says `Blackpool' instead of `Blackburn'! Towards the end you see shots with the Parish Church, now the Cathedral, in the background and some showing the New Palace Theatre.
`Visit of H.R.H. Princess Louise to Blackburn (1905)' LINK

[PanBiker]

I have to disagree with that - statues should be kept clean and in their original state. The reason I say that is because one of my father's uncles had, among other council tasks, the job of regularly cleaning the statue of Queen Victoria on the Boulevard in Blackburn!

Well, all I can say is that a few quotes from Dennis come to mind.

"Oh, king, eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society! If there's ever going to be any progress..."


"Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."


"You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"

[Big Kev]

Putting right the wrongs of history is dangerous stuff. Think how many old wealthy families started their career as feudal lords with virtual slave labour and stolen land. The word slavery is only used by Reds like me who talk about wage slaves. In those days they didn't even have the wage. Do we go back and right that wrong? Dream on!

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