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With the controversial Sir George Carteret statue looking unlikely to budge any time soon, why not have an annual public vote on the most creative act of 'vandalism'? That's the idea of one reader...
"There is nothing quite like the mildly defaced statue of a 17th century slave trader to inflame a sense of injustice among snowflakes who are not used to their sense of privilege being challenged.
Of course, cleaning paint off a bronze statue will have a cost both financial and in effort but after spending £30,000 to commission a controversial monument, perhaps such inconvenience might have been anticipated. And why can’t people demonstrate peacefully? Perhaps the same people who ask are similarly outraged at the statue of Oliver Cromwell at Westminster for his significant disturbance of peace.
Pictured: Sir George was covered in white paint in June.
You can’t rewrite history it is true – but statues are not historic and are often commemorating a selective facet of past glory whilst ignoring unpleasant truth (Edward Colston in Bristol, Bomber Harris in London as well as our own royalist sycophant George Carteret).
The decision to erect a statue (even ill-judged) is historic, public reaction to statues (even adverse) is similarly a matter of modern history that can either be resisted or learnt from.
Whilst I accept that the fake blood and paper chains will not be to everyone’s taste, I did think the effort was very well executed and deserving of applause in much the same way that Churchill’s turf mohawk in Parliament Square stirred emotions at the time. If I could take my turn at remodelling, I do think Sir George would benefit from a Batman’s Joker makeover.
It at least shows great naivety. People don’t like monuments being defaced, as when, almost 20 years ago, a Churchill statue was given a green mohawk during May Day demonstrations in London. Although it suited old Winston in fact, brought out the Oi! punk in him. pic.twitter.com/tkuQrvPoTW
— Right Modernist (@RightModernist) October 8, 2019
And maybe that’s a way forward, each year-end we could leave it to a public vote to judge the most creative act of vandalism suffered by the statue in the previous 12 months – or we could just take it down and let the snowflakes grumble about that for a change."
Phil Renouf
St. Clement
