Trafalgar Square plinth- likely to remain empty for another 150 years!

ChristWeb has asked for my opinion in a post entitled

Trafalgar Square Has Room for Statue

Dr. Adrian Warnock is probably more qualified to post regarding this article, and perhaps he will be kind enough to leave a comment and tell me his thoughts.

Yahoo! News reported on attempts to choose rather unsuitable works of art to adorn Trafalgar square:

“The chosen work of art will stand for about a year on a plinth that was designed over 150 years ago to support an equestrian sculpture that was never built. It was only temporarily filled in 1999 when it was used to exhibit a series of sculptures by different artists. “

Well I am only too happy to obligue with my thoughts. In a funny sort of way it is strangly appropriate to the British way of doing things that wacky statues should be discussed as possibly filling an empty plinth next to the nearest thing we have to a celebration of our great victories of the past.

We are generally much better at celebrating our failures. Every British schoolboy knows 1066, not to mention the 4th July (!) and Dunkirk. We Brits are very unlike the French who remain exceptionally proud of Napoleon, and hate the fact that the Eurostar train from Paris ends at Waterloo station- named after the place of his defeat.

No, in my schooling far from a proud retelling of the history of the British Empire, that was brushed over as something to be ashamed of.

So, like I say, it is no wonder that weird art is in the running for the plinth, and no wonder that it has been empty for 150 years (what kind of a committee sits for that long!).

Serious suggestions have included Princess Diana, The Queen Mum or Nelson Mandella. I could add one of my own- Winston Churchill. He does already have a couple of statues tho- one outside the houses of parliament and one tucked away near my house in the suburbs where his constituency was.

I wouldnt be surprised if it remains empty for another 150 years silently pointing fun at our military past as a world power in our own right rather than the US’s aging uncle taken along for old times sake like a retired general given a few soldiers to play with!