Yeah, I think it's a really good statue. I hope if it doesn't stay there then it gets its own plinth somewhere in the centre.
Edward Colston statue pulled down
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- Dorkwood
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
The city council have removed it to their museum, inviting Quinn to collect or donate it (and also to contribute to the cost of removing it)
Arguably fair enough given they have said they want local people to decide on the replacement, and possibly to pre-empt it being attacked.
Arguably fair enough given they have said they want local people to decide on the replacement, and possibly to pre-empt it being attacked.
Move-a… side, and let the mango through… let the mango through
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Art twitter is calling the sculptor out for appropriating black culture (he is white), opportunism, cynicism and publicity seeking.
I think they're just jealous cos it's got loads of column inches and will undoubtedly sell.
I think they're just jealous cos it's got loads of column inches and will undoubtedly sell.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Is this another instance where twitter is being used to promote division in the progressive ranks?
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
There are tough, competitive, underpaid things to go in for, and sculpture is one of them. Opportunism and publicity seeking is required if you want to prosper. But you won't prosper, unless you are the lucky 1% of the 1%. You will end up teaching art to bored school kids.
You'd think we would all understand this. We grow up in a world of pop stars and can see for ourselves that musical talent is a pretty minor requirement - more important are looks, style, attitude, newsworthiness, ruthlessness, opportunity-seizing and niche-prising. So why don't people immediately recgonise that cynically appropriating the moment is a more valuable sculpting skill than doing stuff with a hammer and chisel?
You'd think we would all understand this. We grow up in a world of pop stars and can see for ourselves that musical talent is a pretty minor requirement - more important are looks, style, attitude, newsworthiness, ruthlessness, opportunity-seizing and niche-prising. So why don't people immediately recgonise that cynically appropriating the moment is a more valuable sculpting skill than doing stuff with a hammer and chisel?
Awarded gold star 4 November 2021
- Tessa K
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
If the Council really wanted to save money they should have made him take it down.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Lol, this is other artists being bitchy, like the modern artists cartoon in Private Eyelpm wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 11:14 amThere are tough, competitive, underpaid things to go in for, and sculpture is one of them. Opportunism and publicity seeking is required if you want to prosper. But you won't prosper, unless you are the lucky 1% of the 1%. You will end up teaching art to bored school kids.
You'd think we would all understand this. We grow up in a world of pop stars and can see for ourselves that musical talent is a pretty minor requirement - more important are looks, style, attitude, newsworthiness, ruthlessness, opportunity-seizing and niche-prising. So why don't people immediately recgonise that cynically appropriating the moment is a more valuable sculpting skill than doing stuff with a hammer and chisel?
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
The speed with which they took this statue makes a rather important point...
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
That they don't want to talk about statues for a bit, because actually it's real life things that matter?
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
I came across an iffy account today.
A new account of an anti-lockdown tweeter with 1 follower
Their follower was ostensibly anti-Trump
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
It's not that. It's the subversion of due process that they're worried about.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
They were so worried about due process that they didn't even get competing quotes for removing it, and so paid way over the odds.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-engla ... l-53449749
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
I can understand why they didn’t want to spend four months procuring a crane and a contractor, and I can understand why they wanted to avoid opportunism and push people down the formal public consultation route.
- discovolante
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Well it did take them several years to (not) remove the Colston statue down, maybe they were just learning from their mistakes.
To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Why would getting a few quotes take four months? We're not talking about a £100k plus open competitive bid that has to be published in the trade papers, just getting a price before you start from a couple of contractors.
- Bird on a Fire
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Local government procurement processes are not always optimally efficient.
A place I worked at even outsourced part of the procurement process to Capita, which went about as well as you might expect.
Four months is probably a bit of an exaggeration, though.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
I work in a US Federal government agency that has three separate processes for spending Federal, Trust and foreign donation dollars. Please tell me about your bureaucratic and overly long procurement processes.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:50 pmLocal government procurement processes are not always optimally efficient.
A place I worked at even outsourced part of the procurement process to Capita, which went about as well as you might expect.
Four months is probably a bit of an exaggeration, though.
I could still get this though purchasing in under a week, with three quotes.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
My cousin worked for Scottish Water a while ago. Their procedures for a leak from a water main were:Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:50 pmLocal government procurement processes are not always optimally efficient.
A place I worked at even outsourced part of the procurement process to Capita, which went about as well as you might expect.
Four months is probably a bit of an exaggeration, though.
- A Scottish Water work group goes out to investigate the leak, digging up the road if required, and assesses the damage.
- They go back to the office and fill in a work scope which gets sent to local companies to bid for.
- They wait a few days until all companies have either bid or confirmed they are not bidding. (Note, road still has hole in!)
- Successful bidder notified and they do the repair work.
- Scottish water come along and make site good (eg, fill in hole in road).
It struck her that in this Scottish Water were employed both as road diggers (no idea why that wasn't sub-contracted out!) and damage assessors, but not as actual repairers, so she organised business credit cards for each work crew and the procedures became:
- A Scottish Water work group goes out to investigate the leak, digging up the road if required, and assesses the damage.
- Senior man in work crew (with credit card) goes to B&Q or other hardware store and buys what they need.
- Come back to site, fix, make good and off to next job.
She said that there was talk of her getting chastised for changing procedures and potentially exposing the company to corruption charges by giving purchasing powers to non-authorised people, until they worked out how much money they were saving.
"My interest is in the future, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there"
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Agreed. For little jobs just do them yourself or direct award, especially if you're in a hurry.
- discovolante
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
Useless anecdote alert: a couple of weeks ago Scottish Water turned up outside my house, dug around a bit around the pipe, turned the water off for an hour or two, turned it back on and left. Then that evening a contractor turned up and put up cones and temporary traffic lights in prep for work. The next day SW came back with a contractor and did the work (turned my water off again without telling me, grr!). However I went out to speak to them (to find out how long the water would be off) and from what they said it sounded like the work might have been pretty urgent, so I'm not sure this is useful info.Martin_B wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 12:39 amMy cousin worked for Scottish Water a while ago. Their procedures for a leak from a water main were:Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:50 pmLocal government procurement processes are not always optimally efficient.
A place I worked at even outsourced part of the procurement process to Capita, which went about as well as you might expect.
Four months is probably a bit of an exaggeration, though.
- A Scottish Water work group goes out to investigate the leak, digging up the road if required, and assesses the damage.
- They go back to the office and fill in a work scope which gets sent to local companies to bid for.
- They wait a few days until all companies have either bid or confirmed they are not bidding. (Note, road still has hole in!)
- Successful bidder notified and they do the repair work.
- Scottish water come along and make site good (eg, fill in hole in road).
It struck her that in this Scottish Water were employed both as road diggers (no idea why that wasn't sub-contracted out!) and damage assessors, but not as actual repairers, so she organised business credit cards for each work crew and the procedures became:
- A Scottish Water work group goes out to investigate the leak, digging up the road if required, and assesses the damage.
- Senior man in work crew (with credit card) goes to B&Q or other hardware store and buys what they need.
- Come back to site, fix, make good and off to next job.
She said that there was talk of her getting chastised for changing procedures and potentially exposing the company to corruption charges by giving purchasing powers to non-authorised people, until they worked out how much money they were saving.
To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave.
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- Catbabel
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
and, for FSM's sake, don't outsource bits of your core business. And supplying water would be part of Scottish Water's , wouldn't it.
If you bring your kids up to think for themselves, you can't complain when they do.
Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
It's terrifying how little understanding there is of how the world actually works. Only the very simplest jobs are done "in house" - standing around, looking at holes or things that how blown up, that level of simple. Everything else is contracted out.
- shpalman
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk
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- Clardic Fug
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Re: Edward Colston statue pulled down
They'd probably have contractor who could do this on call-off contracts anyway. I know the LAs I've worked for did.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:50 pmLocal government procurement processes are not always optimally efficient.
A place I worked at even outsourced part of the procurement process to Capita, which went about as well as you might expect.
Four months is probably a bit of an exaggeration, though.