Government To Commission 150 New Margaret Thatcher Statues To Inspire A Generation
2018-04-24
The unveiling of a statue of equal rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square this week, has thrown the spotlight on an inequality of its own. The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA) is a volunteer-run charity which has been recording public sculpture across the UK for three decades, and of the 828 statues it recorded, just 174 of them were female – around one in five. Thirty eight of those are are royal, with Queen Victoria being the woman most commonly memorialised.
The figures are something of an embarrasment for the government who have vowed to do something about it. An insider told The Bugle “We have already commissioned 150 statues of Margaret Thatcher which will be sited in towns, cities and villages up and down the country. We think it’s a great choice which will inspire a new generation. With the greatest of respects to the royal’s, none of them could have managed to sort out the coal industry like she did.”
The first ‘Maggie’, as they’re affectionately being called, is expected to go up in Barnsley town centre in May where it will replace the one currenly honouring local Cricket umpire, Dickie Bird. The Bugle understands that it will be mounted on a specially commissioned plinth depicting a prostrate Arthur Scargill.
“This is just the start,” the insider told our reporter “Plans are already being made for a whole series of ‘women of achievement’ statues with the likes of Katie Hopkins and Kirstie from Location Location Location being in the frame to give the project a more contemporary feel. The things that woman has done for the housing market are incredible. We think women’s groups are going to be delighted.”
