Editorial Comment:
Big Ben, the popular name for the Great Bell in the Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster, is an icon of our nation, fêted around the world. It is no exaggeration to say that it is as synonymous with Britain as the Eiffel Tower is with France or St Basil’s Cathedral with Russia. And yet yesterday we learnt that, from next Monday, this emblem of Britannia, which has rung out through storm and summer, war and peace, is to be silenced for an unprecedented four years.
Where the Nazis failed, health and safety has triumphed, as the nation’s timepiece is muted to spare the hearing of engineers carrying out restoration work. They could wear ear protectors, of course, but this is deemed “not desirable for those working at height”. So the striking hammers on the Great Bell will be locked and it will be disconnected from the time mechanism. Tourists and Londoners may still set their watches by the most famous clock in the world, as they have done since 1859, but they will wait in vain for it to strike. Bereft MPS and peers in the Commons and Lords below will no longer be guided through the rites and rhythm of their essential work by Big Ben and the quarter bells. The very heartbeat of our democracy will fall silent.
That is extraordinary. Restoration work is understandable after 157 years, but was there really no way to keep Big Ben in service? Was not some compromise possible, allowing the Great Bell to strike, say, at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight? No doubt some will say such questions represent the quibbling of nostalgics who must not be allowed to interfere with the work at hand. But symbols matter. Emotion matters, in politics more than almost any other field. Britain is currently proclaiming itself to be a proud nation, independent of the European Union and open for business around the world. Yet in precisely the period during which we are to negotiate the terms of our new identity, the most famous emblem of the nation is being turned off. Are the ravens also to be dispatched from the Tower?
As it stands, Big Ben will ring for the last time until 2021 at noon next Monday. Steve Jaggs, Keeper of the Great Clock, has invited the public to gather in Parliament Square “to hear the final bongs”. Gather we should, but in protest not mourning, to ensure that not a day goes by without Big Ben ringing at least once.