Maggie an inspiration? No chance, say woke students
STUDENTS at one of the country’s most prestigious universities have removed Margaret Thatcher from a list of inspirational women and apologised for including her.
Members of the Durham University Art Society had been invited to take part in a portrait competition to mark International Women’s Day. Among the suggested subjects were Florence Nightingale, Cleopatra, Marie Curie and Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
But Baroness Thatcher was removed from the list – along with French designer Coco Chanel – after complaints. Organisers issued an apology, saying: ‘Considering Durham’s history as a former mining town, the impact of Thatcher’s policies, as well as her homophobia, her inclusion was an error.
‘Coco Chanel also had links to Nazis... so her inclusion was also extremely erroneous. We can only apologise for any offence or insult to anyone in our community that this may have caused.’
Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, accused the Art Society and their joint organisers, the History in Politics Society, of capitulating to ‘woke bullies’.
He added: ‘ They’ve allowed themselves to be bullied by a small minority of political activists. Far from being sensitive to the feelings of the local community in Durham, these student societies have thumbed their noses at all those local people who voted Conservative at the last Election.’
A spokesman for the Art and History in Politics societies said: ‘After some of the history of certain names on the list was drawn to our attention, we decided amongst ourselves to remove them.’