Local council seeks additional funds for Thatcher statue to pay for a tall anti-vandal plinth

Margaret Thatcher is one of history's great monsters, a kind of slow-motion Stalin whose ideological extremism plunged Britain into decades of decline and inequality, and whose sympathy for genocidal tyrants like Pinochet were a key factor in the wholesale slaughter of political dissidents: so, of course, her hometown of Grantham is putting up a statue in her honour (Stalin's hometown also has a statue!).

Understandably, the local council is worried that "politically-motivated vandals" will target the statue, so they're seeking to appropriate funds for a ten-foot-tall plinth intended to deter miscreants.

The police support the idea, having identified a "motivated far-left movement" who may be committed to public activism" but they add that "the passage of time does seem to have diminished that feeling".

I eagerly await the Gofundme to buy the Black Bloc an eleven-foot ladder.

Plans to erect the statue in Westminster were rejected by Westminster Council last year with a report saying it could have attracted "potential vandalism and civil disorder".

The report to the authority in Lincolnshire said these issues were present in this case.

It said: "The divisive nature of Baroness Thatcher due to her political career and policy legacy and the potential for this to result in vandalism has been raised as a concern.

"A threat assessment has been carried out by Lincolnshire Police who consider there is a possibility any public statue of Baroness Thatcher could be a target for politically motivated vandals.

300,000 Margaret Thatcher statue needs plinth 'to keep out vandals' [ITV]

(via Naked Capitalism)

(Image: Ferran Cornelli, CC-BY-SA)