‘2000 people have pledged to throw eggs at the monument, which is set to cost Kesteven District Council £100,000 to erect’
South Kesteven District Council are set to unveil a statue of Margaret Thatcher, in her birthplace of Grantham, to much controversy. Perhaps to the surprise of district councillors, a Facebook group was quickly created with thousands of people pledging to attend in order to throw eggs at the statue, set to be mounted on February the 21st.
The council are set to mount the statue on a ten-foot plinth to mitigate attempts at vandalism, and are trying to raise as much of the required £100,000 from donations as possible. As Sky News reports:
‘The £300,000 bronze statue, created by sculptor Douglas Jennings, will be placed on a 10ft-high plinth to prevent vandalism, making the entire structure over 20ft tall in total.
Councillors say the sculpture will be a fitting tribute to the Iron Lady, who was born and brought up in the town, and that the local authority will seek to raise as much of the £100,000 as possible through donations from the public and local businesses.’
Lincolnshire Live reported on some of the dissenting comments amongst locals:
‘Chris Charnock said: “She never did anything for Grantham so why bother wasting money on a statue of her.”
Another wrote: “If the statue has to be put high enough to protect from attacks, doesn’t that suggest a lack of public support for it, disregarding the amount it will cost at a time when money is incredibly short?”’
However, when one looks at the constituency of Grantham, we find that 66% of voters chose the Conservative party at the last election. While not all Conservatives are compelled into liking Thatcher, and even those who do might not want their cash spent on a statue, I would hazard that the odds are the silent majority probably do favour the council’s plan.
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