Hello and welcome to the Red Box Politics Podcast and The Times I'm Matt Chorley.

What happens when politics fails the people?

They take matters into their own hands as we saw dramatically

in Bristol at the weekend when protesters tall down a statue of Edward Colston who made a fortune

from the slave trade in the 17th century, they tore down the statue and threw it into the city's

harbour. While many of us were felt conflicted, it's of course possible to think that it's no bad thing that the statue was

toppled while not supporting angry mobs and

criminal damage for one man this is both personal and political

Marvin Reese is the labor mayor of Bristol and joins me now. Welcome Marvin to the podcast.

Thank you very much.

It's great to have you on.

You were born in the city you now lead.

I want to come back obviously to the events of the last few days and a minute.

I want to go right back to the beginning. What was it like for you as a mixed-raised boy growing up in the 1970s in Bristol?

My memories of my childhood are one of feeling vulnerable and quite exposed and was looking for safety and security.

Obviously I didn't have words to explain all that was going on but before my mom was

born she was advised as a single white woman with no money and no profession.

I had married to have me aborted and then once I was born she was advised to put me up for adoption

if she was a good woman and those

themes played themselves out through our lives so I certainly remember that constant feeling of vulnerability

you know as a young person and then into the 1980s,

we always had the riots and as a young mixed-race kid with living in, you know, a predominantly

...