The Voice editor slams ‘Bristol’s turnip-munching racists’

The editor of the UK’s only Black national newspaper has blamed “Bristol’s turnip-munching racists” for Marvin Rees not being selected by Labour members in Bristol North East.

Lester Holloway was responding to Damien Egan being selected over Bristol’s mayor to be Labour’s candidate in the new constituency.

Rees has twice won a citywide vote to be elected mayor but failed to convince Labour members that he should be their prospective parliamentary candidate.

https://twitter.com/LesterJHolloway/status/1686140243013992450

Writing in The Voice, Holloway said that that Bristol has “shafted its Black mayor (again)”, adding that Rees’ defeat “speaks volumes about a city with a history of racism denial”.

“While Rees was re-elected in 2021, his period as city mayor was already scarred by constant criticism,” writes Holloway.

“He was accused of vainglorious self-promotion and globe-trotting jollies when he flew abroad to try and drum up business for Bristol, even though other metro mayors do exactly the same thing…

“Whether saving money or spending it, Rees was the bad guy. Whatever he did was the wrong decision in his critics eyes. And so the narrative of a ‘disaster mayor’ took hold.

“He was criticised for investing more money in the previously popular Bristol Energy company when it lost money before it was split up and sold off, with some of the mayor’s fiercest critics the very people who were Bristol Energy’s strongest supporters when it was established.”

Holloway said that “when costs for renovating the Bristol Beacon, formerly Coulson (sic) Hall, an arts and performance venue, escalated, Rees was blamed. And when he hit back at critics in city hall – in a much milder manner than Boris Johnson routinely did as London mayor – Rees was labelled a ‘bully’. If they didn’t catch him in the wash they got him in the rinse…

“‘But we can’t be racist, we elected him twice,’ Bristolians say. Which is like a boss saying: ‘I can’t be racist against my employee because I hired him/her.’ It’s a wafer-thin defence which slides into ‘I’m Not Racist But…’ territory.”

Holloway added that Rees’ critics during the mayoral referendum in which the role of city mayor was scrapped “seemed to resent his public profile and wanted him to be more like a bog-standard councillor, not a sharp-suited, articulate, uppity (Black) man.

“Rees reacted to the public vote on the system of governance by restating that the scale of challenges the city faced required ‘leadership, not just politics that’s sucked into council business’.

“Nevertheless, the referendum was effectively a vote of no confidence in the mayor. Now looking weather-beaten, Rees sought a path into parliament but was defeated in the Bristol North East selection contest by the mayor of Lewisham, in south London, a white man.

“When I tweeted about this, furious Bristolians scorned me as a Londoner ignorant of the multitude of failings of this disaster mayor. His latest defeat had nothing to do with race, and it was outrageous to even suggest it, they snorted.

“On the bright side, the local Bristol274 blog (sic) speculated that Rees will be fine and – based on no evidence whatsoever – he would probably end up in the House of Lords. Which sounded to my ears like the lathering of anti-guilt balm, aware that their Black mayor had been publicly shredded for a second time, and may be finished.

“I, for one, hope Rees is not finished. He’s got a lot more to give public life. I don’t share all of his politics, but would welcome his appearance in the Commons. As one of the most electorally successful Labour politicians in the past decade, he deserves it. Whether he will find a Bristol seat is more doubtful.

“His pitchforked critics accuse him of being ‘arrogant’ and ‘a bully’, but it feels like projection; that they are the ones taking umbrage at a confident Black man keen to use the power invested in him by the people to make decisions and get things done.

“Things haven’t always gone to plan, for sure, but that is the stuff of city mayors. He certainly does not deserve the label of being a failure.

“As for the city, it has picked parochialism over the outward-looking, confident, modern, multicultural persona Rees embodied. A city retreating back to the Liberal racism denialism of yonder, where the colour of your skin means you are ‘not from around these parts’.”

Main photo: Bristol City Council

Read next:

• Rees shortlisted for world’s best mayor award
• Damien Egan beats Marvin Rees to become Labour’s Bristol North East candidate
• ‘Marvin Rees could still make it to Westminster – but in the Lords not the Commons’
• Council has never proposed an underground system for Bristol, says transport boss

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