Outrageous! No room in Parliament Square for Maggie’s statue
MPS reacted with fury yesterday after a statue of Margaret Thatcher looked set to be refused a place in Parliament Square – because it already contains “too many” statues.
Planning officials at Westminster Council also say not enough time has passed since the death of Baroness Thatcher in 2013 to comply with a 10-year rule.
And in a further insult to the former Conservative prime minister, they instead want to make room in the square for feminist icons Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett.
Smashed
Parliament Square is home to 11 statues including ones of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Jan Smuts, who was South Africa’s prime minister during the Second World War.
Tory MP for Romford Andrew Rosindell, who has named his east London constituency office Margaret Thatcher House, believes there is enough room for the Iron Lady.
He said: “Margaret Thatcher was not just Britain’s first female prime minister but one of the greatest residents of 10 Downing Street.
“She smashed the glass ceiling for women through force of personality and ability.
“Most importantly she transformed and saved Britain as well as playing a major role in winning the Cold War. More than any 20th-century figure she deserves her place of honour in Parliament Square alongside Winston Churchill.”
Fellow Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “It’s disgraceful. She is the country’s first ever female prime minister and probably the greatest leader since Winston Churchill.”
The Westminster Council planning document claims the proposed £300,000 statue – designed by English sculptor Douglas Jennings – fails to comply with a principle that states no statues should be erected until a decade after the subject’s death to “allow partisan passions to cool and enable sober reflection”.
It stresses the square, which is bordered by Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster, is a “monument saturation zone” in which new statues are not permitted unless there is an “exceptionally good reason”.
It also identifies concerns over potential civil disobedience and vandalism, given the dislike some on the Left still have for Mrs Thatcher, raised by the Royal Parks, the Parliamentary Strategic Estates, the Westminster Society, the Thorney Island Society and the adjacent Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
MARGARET THATCHER was a giant on the political landscape, the greatest post-war politician and prime minister this country has produced. She saved Britain when we were veering off towards national ignominy and indeed bankruptcy, she gave this country a sense of purpose, energy, the chance to make ourselves great again. She makes the current generation of politicos look like pygmies, we will not see her like for many a long year.
Which makes it an absolute disgrace that proposals for a statue of her in Parliament Square look set to be turned down. The official excuse is that there are too many monuments in the area but it’s perfectly obvious that what really lies behind it is spite and malice.
There is still a large faction of people who simply cannot accept what Baroness Thatcher did for this country and would do her down, even in death. Shameful. Utterly shameful. That statue should be erected without delay.