I’ve divided my time between Tottenham and central Cardiff (where my partner lives) for 25 years and when lockdown was announced I was in Wales and remain so for a little while longer.
Hence on the 72nd birthday of the NHS I was able to take the ten minutes or so walk from the house to pay tribute to the founder of the NHS Nye Bevan who died 60 years ago in 1960.
There is a statue of Nye at the end of Queen St, one of the main Cardiff shopping streets (think Oxford St but pedestrianised for many decades). Nye’s statue looks out over Cardiff castle.
Nye’s statue looked as it if had been cleaned for the anniversary, free of its usual decorations (think seagulls).
As a labour historian (albeit Nye is not my period) Ive read a good deal about Bevan. He’s never struck me as being always the easiest person to get on with and when you consider that battle he had to bring the NHS into being in 1948 that is just as well.
Even so Tony Benn described him in his diary (7th February 1951) as ‘open, honest, good-humoured and devastating.
Since the fall of Edward Colston in Bristol a few Sundays ago, there has been much discussion about which statues should come down and which should go up.
There are though some statues that must never be toppled, and Nye’s is one.
One statue definitely to be cared for.
A change to see any statue in Cardiff without the usual traffic cone!