love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

So @pritipatel thinks toppling the statute of slave trader Edward Colston is utterly disgraceful. The real disgrace and the horror which echoes down the centuries is the slave trade itself #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/n5TaRqLTFH

— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) June 7, 2020

He was likely responsible for many more deaths than all of Britain's serial killers combined so maybe just stick up a statue of Dr Harold Shipman instead.

I’m normally an optimist,but I feel we’re heading towards something grim and ominous. Mobs being egged on by our intellectual and cultural elites won’t have a happy ending .....

— Douglas Carswell (@DouglasCarswell) June 7, 2020

Replies to the carswell tweet are a handy list of people who are likely to go out and commit a hate crime at some point.

I think they should have a health and safety officer next time they bring down a statue, would hate to get a life changing injury from a falling cast stone/bronze model of a scumbag imperialist with a stupid fucking dick turpin hat.

a lot of the usual wankers are saying the avon/somerset police superintendent admitted they stood off and let the protesters take the statue. lol that is gonna boil some piss!

This Metropolitan Police could learn a lot from this statement by @abennett_police. pic.twitter.com/jSJE6ulQVM

— Owen Jones says join a union🌹 (@OwenJones84) June 7, 2020

🚨 The US Department of Justice has demanded that Britain hand over Prince Andrew to be questioned over his links to Jeffrey Epstein. https://t.co/H1m8D0RbMk

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) June 7, 2020

Non-Sun link

BREAKING: US 'demands UK hands over Prince Andrew to appear in court over Jeffrey Epstein links'https://t.co/P82XREsXqe pic.twitter.com/t6yOXaLLVv

— Mirror Breaking News (@MirrorBreaking_) June 7, 2020

Non-Sun link

BREAKING: US 'demands UK hands over Prince Andrew to appear in court over Jeffrey Epstein links'https://t.co/P82XREsXqe pic.twitter.com/t6yOXaLLVv

— Mirror Breaking News (@MirrorBreaking_) June 7, 2020

one hour and 10 minutes left, keep it coming pls today

On the statue of Edward Colston, Keir Starmer says: "Nobody should condone the lawlessness." He says the statue "shouldn't come down in that way".

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) June 8, 2020

jesus christ

Excited for the next few days to fully shift from questions about police brutality to 'i'm joined in the studio by a tinpot fascist contrarian and someone you've never heard of who's apparently a rapper as we ask for the thirtieth time, are statues bad?'. Good on the protesters though, obvs.

I can't believe we've had Madeline McCann, Prince Andrew and Olof Palme in the same week. If the protests keep up until the end of the month we'll finally know what happened at Area 51.

FUCK STARMZY YOU COP MELT CUNT

reconstructed Tory and claw and order enthusiast Starmer just gets lamer every fucking day.

lol I know the cunt looks like a lobster but I meant law and order

I like how Starmer’s leadership video is about him being at the Wapping protests when the police charged at protesters using horses, and not a word about them last week. Btw, if you were wondering how he was planning to handle the fascists lying about the grooming gangs stuff, now you know.

Even the superintendent of Avon and Somerset Police is less of a cop wanker than Starmer.

damn I hadn't seen that about olof palme, truly these are interesting times! lord lucan to pop up by the end of the month

SV had me googling, I didn't even know the latest about Palme!

lol xp

Starmer can get in the fucking river imo.

same. stoked for the madness on weds

Hearing that Shergar’s been sighted as well?

It should have come down in a more respectful way....we could have licked its boots until they dissolved...it would have toppled eventually https://t.co/biYFo3ktdD

— Eli Goldstone (@eligoldstone) June 8, 2020

maybe Starmzy's just trying to keep the historical racism enthusiasts on side

Free callipers with every labour membership card?

calum will be back posting come friday

I have to say, the amount of young british people going “whaaaaaaa????!?!?” and sharing their horror over Churchill and Colston is extremely good.

*mob respects colston furiously*

FFFS. Look forward to a Spiked “lawlessness is good not bad actually” column now

Funny how everyone's kicking up a stink about learning history when it comes to statues of murderers. I wonder how bothered they were by the years of deliberate underfunding to the heritage sector by Tory governments?https://t.co/33TT1oQe7G

— make no apologies (@RavenholmCLP) June 8, 2020

that duality of Tories saying "respect the statues" and then cutting the fuck out LA funding so much that museums are forced to toss experienced curators and archivists into the river!

They should re-erect the statue and then every year, as a tradition and reminder to people that these historical figures existed, tear it down again/throw into a river. I feel that this should please both sides of the discussion.

if they really want to teach the history, they should replace colston with statues of each of the 80,000 slaves he traded

https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/

thanks Nick i was just about to say that

also half the fucking clowns crying about its removal are the same people who would be whining about the cost to taxpayers were it done via official channels

Given what Thangam Debbonaire has been retweeting today even she appears to believe there was no chance of its being removed by any other means.

The Mayor of Bristol is also like "yeah fuck fishing it out of the water".

a yearly "throw the slaver into the river" is a magic idea. Sod putting it up for the other 364 days though

yeah prob just put it up the night before

yeah, could be a massive festival like the lewes bonfire except with less racists

another alternative would be a statue depicting people tearing down the original statue

Statues of families who've taken a picnic to point at the statue in the river.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J1J_iHC2Qw

Obviously the Colstons of this world approached people entirely democratically and through the proper channels, going out and asking the people of West Africa to vote on whether or not they wished to be sold into slavery.

i read somewhere that there had already been a 11,000 signature petition about removing it and they'd done nothing. could've easily moved it into a museum if they were that keen on keeping it (but add a note with the history).

Are there any good UK articles (from the last 7 days), about how BoJo & Co are likely to 'use' the covid crisis as a rug, sweeping under it the dire economical consequences and the chaos of the hard brexit they're apparently still chasing?

in an era when our former PM and a prominent member of Starmer's (and his pathetic bullshit wanker response) shadow cabinet can stan for a statue of a Nazi supporting anti-semite and proffer revisionist bullshit that she was some kind of feminist icon, then it is safe to say there isn't enough political will coming from Westminster to deal with these dreadful statues that blight our public spaces and alternative has to be taken.

action