Who Wants a Shot of My Hula-Hoop.

Edmund Burke was an Irishman who was a notable Bristol member of Parliament from 1774 to 1780 although he had been an MP for Wendover since 1765. At the time Bristol only had one MP and was England's "second city," and so the change was a major career move for him.
He was a great political reformer of the time who took an interest in Catholic rights, the American colonies and their rights to autonomy as well as the rights of the native Americans.
He was a man who stood up for his principles regardless of the effect on his own standing in the community. While this statue is in Bristol Centre there is an identical statue in Washington on a similar plinth.

The statement that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" is often attributed to Burke, though there is no solid evidence to support the claim, but Edward Gibbon described him as 'the most eloquent and rational madman that I ever knew!'

To think that if it hadn't been for the hoop I would have known nothing about him.