3. To remove a statue is not to "erase history". On the contrary, statues themselves can be acts of historical erasure. The Colston Statue, for example, did not mention his role in the slave trade. It constructed a history from which slavery was written out and cast it in bronze.

2. Statues inhabit the present, not the past, and are subject to its jurisdiction. Our relationship with the past - and the things we choose to honour - can change over time. It is not an offence against history to reflect those changes in what we commemorate in our public spaces

1. Public statues are not politically neutral. They are statements about who and what we honour as a society. The decision to erect (or maintain) them is an exercise of power over the public realm. As such, it carries into one age the values and power structures of another.