Proposals for a Margaret Thatcher statue in Parliament Square look set to be rejected because there are too many monuments in the area.
It also fails to comply with a 10-year principle which states that no statues should be erected until a decade after the subject’s death to “allow partisan passions to cool and enable sober reflection”.
A document prepared for Westminster Council’s planning meeting on Tuesday stresses that the area is a “monument saturation zone” in which new statues are not permitted unless there is an “exceptionally good reason”.
The failure to comply with the 10n-year rule, the depiction of the former Tory leader in state robes which do not “reflect her role as prime minister”, and the existence of another statue of her in the adjacent Houses of Parliament mean there is no reason to overturn the council’s policy against new monuments in the area, the document states.
It also identifies concerns over potential civil disobedience and vandalism, given the ex-PM’s divisive legacy, from the Royal Parks, the Parliamentary Strategic Estates, the Westminster Society, the Thorney Island Society, the adjacent Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and others.
And backers of the statue, who hoped the £300,000 memorial to Britain’s first female prime minister would join the likes of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and other political greats in Parliament Square, have failed to produce evidence of support from the Thatcher family.
Ivan Saxton, co-founder of the Public Memorials Appeal Trust which initially applied for a statue, said in 2016 that there was “talk that (Carol Thatcher, the ex-PM’s daughter) didn’t like it because it isn’t made of iron, but she doesn’t mind that it’s not made of iron – Carol’s upset that there’s no handbag”.
At the unveiling of her statue outside the House of Commons chamber in 2007, Baroness Thatcher commented: “I might have preferred iron but bronze will do.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said in July that the threat of vandalism should not stop the statue being erected.
In 2002 a protester decapitated a £150,000 Italian marble statue of Lady Thatcher on display at London’s Guildhall Library.
There have also been cases of an existing resident of Parliament Square, Churchill, falling victim to vandals, including being defaced with graffiti.
The design, by sculptor Douglas Jennings, is said to show the Iron Lady in a “resolute posture looking towards Parliament with a stern gaze”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel