In June last year, amid a wave of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down by Woke protesters and thrown in Bristol harbour. It was later retrieved, and four people will face trial for alleged criminal damage. Other debates over removing statues, such as that of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes from Oxford University’s Oriel College, have predominantly been about monuments in the hands of private institutions or councils, rather than cultural institutions.
Free Speech Part 8
