Statue Of Limitations

‘JONATHAN Cainer is right. Things are changing. A new regime is indeed on the way.

PC or ‘armless fun?

In times past, the spare plinth at one corner of Trafalgar Square would not have been a problem to fill. There was no shortage of victorious generals and sea dogs to commemorate in marble and bird muck.

Hell! We were even prepared to stick the Queen Mother (a woman!) on the plinth – and that’s not a papier mache statue of her but the real thing, albeit stuck in a glass jar full of gin to keep the pigeons at bay and the skin soft and supple.

But it was not to be because what the Tory culture spokesman Julie Kirkbridge calls the ‘politically correct lobby’ got their way.

So instead of a figure from history and endeavour, Trafalgar Square will be occupied – at last for the next 15 months – by Marc Quinn’s statue of his disabled, heavily pregnant friend Alison Lapper.

While not everyone is happy at the choice, Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, tells the Mail that he is delighted.

‘Congratulations to Marc,’ he says, ‘for realising that disabled bodies have a power and beauty rarely recognised in an age where youth and ‘perfection’ are idolised.’

We can only agree, and marvel at Quinn’s foresight and wonder where on earth he got the inspiration for his work.

We wonder what Lord Nelson, that other Trafalgar Square special needs case, would have made of it all…’

Posted: 16th, March 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink