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Edward Colston: Bristol slave trader statue 'was an affront'

Students trying to make a gesture to show their concern about slavery. Sadly, they are suffering an inflated sense of self importance, they have no understanding of the history of the city of Newcastle and they actually aren't concerned about slavery given their support of child labour due to their general attitude toward consumerism. Hypocrites, really.

Things like this bring the issue of past slavery into disrepute. What about current slavery? It exists, just under a different guise.

I come from Newcastle. There is nothing wrong with having a statue of Armstrong. It needs to be left exactly as it is. Exactly. No changes.

I'm fed up of these so-called "activists". Many of them are nothing more than vandals looking for an excuse to do what vandals do.
You’re being played Brian.
 
I'm from Newcastle.
My surname is Armstrong.
I suffer from obsessive opulance and decline.
I also bear a resembalnce to Lord Armstong - this is my fizzog next to his bust at Cragside.
44694_10200393843513755_452522408_n.jpg

Male pattern baldness - check
Nose - check (Known as the Armstrong nose in the wider family)
Chin - check
Mutton chops - needs work.
 
I'm from Newcastle.
My surname is Armstrong.
I suffer from obsessive opulance and decline.
I also bear a resembalnce to Lord Armstong - this is my fizzog next to his bust at Cragside.
44694_10200393843513755_452522408_n.jpg

Male pattern baldness - check
Nose - check (Known as the Armstrong nose in the wider family)
Chin - check
Mutton chops - needs work.
Never mind the nose ( the resemblance is uncanny though) what about the wallet? I’m a bit light this month..
 
Never mind the nose ( the resemblance is uncanny though) what about the wallet? I’m a bit light this month..
Sadly I come from the Chillingham Road (and not the posh end) Heaton side of the family...though me Mam always says me Dad is posh because she's from Byker.
 
Sadly I come from the Chillingham Road (and not the posh end) Heaton side of the family...though me Mam always says me Dad is posh because she's from Byker.
I was born in a flat in Gosforth before we moved to Benwell (vague memory of living there) before moving to Newbiggin Hall when I was 5 1/2. We moved a lot. I ended up at Blakelaw School, now demolished.
 
I was born in a flat in Gosforth before we moved to Benwell (vague memory of living there) before moving to Newbiggin Hall when I was 5 1/2. We moved a lot. I ended up at Blakelaw School, now demolished.
Molineux (pronounced Mollynox in the local dialect) Street off Shields Road, Byker. Me Mam infamously left me and the pram outside the Butchers and came home. "Where's the bairn?!" me Dad says.
I can't remember any of that obvs.
Then moved to a flat on Longbenton estate when the Byker terraces were demolished. The particular three-storey flats we were in now also demolished. Mam and Dad did an exchange with an older couple to get a house on the Benton estate in the early 80s.
 
Molineux (pronounced Mollynox in the local dialect) Street off Shields Road, Byker. Me Mam infamously left me and the pram outside the Butchers and came home. "Where's the bairn?!" me Dad says.
I can't remember any of that obvs.
Then moved to a flat on Longbenton estate when the Byker terraces were demolished. The particular three-storey flats we were in now also demolished. Mam and Dad did an exchange with an older couple to get a house on the Benton estate in the early 80s.
We would go on a Saturday to Doug's bike shop on one of the Byker terraces (about 1973); over the road we went into a pub and it was the only time i have ever seen a massive bar top totally covered with full pint glasses of beer.
 
The Armstrong thing sounds to me like a load of Politics students trying to do something that will look good on their CVs. It's a pretty good illustration of the problem of how far do you go.
 
I think it's probably more enlightened to append a statue with a plaque of misdeeds than throw it in the drink, but as a white geezer, I also think that what I think is not germane to the discussion - in the same way that I think women have the right to decide if trans people can stay in women's refuges. It is literally none of my ****ing business.

I do like to see a bit of agit from young people though. It gives me hope for the future.
 
We would go on a Saturday to Doug's bike shop on one of the Byker terraces (about 1973); over the road we went into a pub and it was the only time i have ever seen a massive bar top totally covered with full pint glasses of beer.
Sorry to keep going OT but that reminds me of a story my Mam tells of a pub in Byker - she goes to the loo and she comes back to a massive bar fight going on, loads of them at it. She spies a bloke on the floor who has obviously taken a right old seeing to and for a moment is convinced it's me Dad from the clothing he is wearing. But then she sees my Dad waving to her from across the room stood on the banquette with both their drinks and her handbag in his arms. :D
 
Being in Rome, it will be interesting if this trend eventually extends to Roman emperors who took slaves hand-over-fist whenever they conquered someone, or to the popes, who tortured and chopped off heads for both political and theological reasons. There won't be any statues left.
 
But it is a fascinating debate. Germany took down all the statues of Hitler. Stalin has disappeared in eastern Europe. Statues of Mussolini were pulled down after the war. Yet all three were part of their country's history. Queen Victoria is still around, although under her reign millions of people were subject to the Pax Britannica, and one can discuss forever if, and when and where, this was good or bad for the people involved. Many white Americans became rich building cheap housing for black Americans, producing ghettoes of cheap labour for what Eldridge Cleaver described as "domestic colonialism." And all over the world children were forced to work like slaves in mines and factories or on farms. Where can one draw the line, I wonder.
 
Sorry to be cynical but this is following an entirely predictable arc:

1. Man arrested for what began as a minor offence winds up dead in police custody. Man has black skin.
2. Incident is nicely filmed (in focus, little camera shake) and published on the internet.
3. Large number of ordinary people see it and react with outrage. This provides an impetus that 'something must be done'.
4. Marches are organised, initially well attended around the world.
5. Marches are hijacked by same group of whistle-blowing twats who've been seen over and over and just like looting and setting stuff on fire.
6. Movement established behind snappy slogan but with no leadership and no concrete actionable aims.
7. Initial impetus is deflating because of apathy, actions of above twats and no clear aims to get behind.
8. Existing movements with tangentially related issue hitch onto the bandwagon. These confuse people and put them off, thus further draining the impetus.
9. News agenda moves on.
10. Some people might have changed their views if they have the time to think about it between working, caring, watching telly and sleeping.
11. Movement quietly deflates in acrimony and misappropriation of funds.
12. Black man is still dead.
13. No police procedures are changed other than a few optional training courses that no-one attends because the mindset of the group as a whole has not been substantially changed.
14. Police officers take more care that next incident is not filmed.
15. Next black man killed for initially trivial incident. This has already happened but it wasn't filmed clearly enough, too much camera shake.
16. Process of change inches forward.
 


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