The Londoner: Calls for fourth plinth statue to honour slaves

In today's Diary: Campaign for London monument to victims of slave trade / Frieze no longer on ice / Robert Buckland on the joy of lego / Tory MPs join new social network Parler
New occupant? The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square
NurPhoto via Getty Images
23 June 2020

A campaign has been launched for a statue “to commemorate those who suffered and died in slavery” on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

“We need our own Cenotaph,” organiser Chris Cleverly tells the Londoner.

Cleverly is one of the trustees of One Voice For Freedom, a charity which is proposing the statue and is in contact with Justine Simons, the deputy mayor for culture. A host of well-known names are backing the campaign.

Bulletproof actor Noel Clarke said: “The fourth plinth is not enough, but it’s a start, and the Mayor needs to let One Voice put our statue up without delay — right now it feels like generic statues are valued more than black lives.”

Fashion designer Ozwald Boateng told the Londoner: “Governments, banks, families and corporations who benefited from Slavery need to wait till we are ready to organise and articulate the racist damage and loss this makes us suffer even to this day before offering small gifts. But we must immediately be given the respect of our place in the seat of empire, the empire our suffering built — the fourth plinth without delay.”

Cleverly said that donors have underwritten £500,000 of funding for the possible statue, while two sculptors have been approached. Simons is said to be considering the idea.

Journalist Zeinab Badawi said “a memorial to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade is long overdue”.

The ball is in the Mayor’s court.

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Sports broadcaster Andrew Cotter, whose videos of his two labradors competing against each other were a lockdown hit, has landed a book deal. Olive, Mabel and Me: Life with my Canine Companions will be published in October, the Bookseller reports. Cotter’s most popular clip, Game of Bones, was viewed more than 40 million times. Juicy.

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Back on? A sculpture at Frieze in Regent's Park (Photo: Matthew Chattle/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Organisers of Frieze London are hoping that the Regent’s Park annual art fair can go ahead in October. They have written to galleries asking them to commit to the event, but have explained that there will be new safety measures to avoid crowds and a different layout. Galleries have until next Friday to make a decision, the Art Newspaper reported. Let’s hope Frieze isn’t put on ice.

SW1A

Foundational blocks: Robert Buckland (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
Getty Images

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland says the solution for taking a different path and loneliness is Lego. He told the Political Thinking podcast that it was tough growing up as a Tory in Wales but “it was Lego that helped to keep me going”. His son is also a fan. “Every Christmas we treat ourselves to a new set. It’s a wonderful bond.” They recently built Big Ben. Get them on the real thing next.

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Eyebrows are being raised at a number of Tory MPs, including Angela Richardson, Ben Bradley and Steve Baker, who have left Twitter (via #Twexit) and followed Katie Hopkins to join a new app, Parler, which many fear is a platform for the far right. Worrying content has been generated on Parler which appears to be misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic. Will these MPs regret being early adopters?

Fathers enjoy their families and chick Pete is chirpy too

Craig David paid tribute to his dad for Father’s Day, thanking him among other things for helping him build a speaker set: “those ported subs still knock so hard to this day”. Pixie Geldof introduced her new best friend Pete the chick, John Bishop enjoyed a beer in Iceland and Chris Martin sat with his son Moses and ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow’s new husband Brad Falchuk. Seems like conscious uncoupling worked.

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