‘My heart gave a leap of joy when I saw Edward Colston’s statue toppled and rolled into the water’

• THOUGHT I knew it all.

So I sat down on Monday to watch Sitting in Limbo, a drama-documentary on the Windrush scandal, without expectation.

But I was gripped and horrified by the relentless hostile-environment hounding of Anthony Bryan.

In the end he was vindicated. However, so many of his generation have seen neither justice nor recompense for their persecution.

It helped me understand better the extraordinary response here to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The Windrush scandal was extreme, but could only happen because of the racism embedded in all our institutional structures, in government, political parties, police and other institutions both public and private.

A decade of austerity has seen those at the bottom end of society paying a much higher price than those higher up. A greater proportion of them are, as we all know, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.

And now, with Covid-19, a higher proportion of them are also low-paid “essential workers” and a hugely disproportionate number have died.

People are viscerally angry, tired of waiting, tired of being reassured that things are getting better. George Floyd’s cruel and incomprehensible death was the flash point.

People are saying enough! And the establishment?

A wringing of hands (“so sorry about Floyd’s death”) is rapidly deflected into outrage – the protesters didn’t keep their social distance, they didn’t respect property.

When Dominic Cummings got away with driving to Barnard Castle to “test his eyesight”, he drove a coach and horses through respect for this government.

But when tens of thousands of highly articulate and enraged protesters took to the streets to protest the “epidemic of racism” in our midst, home secretary Priti Patel leaves us in no doubt that this was an outrage. They will be made to pay.

My heart gave a leap of joy when I saw Edward Colston’s statue toppled and rolled into the water.

Criminal damage? The real crime is that, despite years and years of campaigning and going through “proper channels”, that statue was still allowed to remain standing.

That was “completely wrong”, to repurpose Sir Keir Starmer’s reaction to its removal, an affront to all who reject the legacy of Britain’s role in slavery over the centuries.

Those who tore it down did it for all of us. If they are prosecuted, I will be among the first to support them. Solidarity!

RICHARD KUPER,
N6