Crazy Like a Fox.. A Big, Reactionary Tory Fox.

I was pondering writing a long considered post on this story I saw a few days ago, but instead I'll let the BBC speak for me:

"Charity removes Churchill statue
A charity's controversial statue of Sir Winston Churchill in a straitjacket has been removed after it caused outcry. Rethink commissioned the sculpture, unveiled in The Forum building in Norwich at the weekend, to highlight the stigma of mental health problems.

Forum managers said the 9ft statue had to go after complaints from tenants and members of the public who said it was insulting to the Churchill family. The sculpture had been due to stay in place until the end of this week.

Churchill's grandson, Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, said the piece was "absurd and pathetic" and "sensation-seeking" and the Churchill family condemned the statue as "offensive to them and to the people who revered him".

In the House of Commons on Monday, it was also condemned as "an ignorant gimmick". Senior Tory Sir Patrick Cormack said the glass fibre sculpture was an insult to both the former prime minister and to those with mental health problems.

Not everyone was critical of the statue. Lecturer John Britton who 12 years ago lost everything through manic depression said he thought it was brilliant." (The rest of the story)

If it's any consolation, he was still less mad than Hitler.

My favorite bit: "the Churchill family condemned the statue as 'offensive to them and to the people who revered him'". God, I should hope so. Anyone who reveres anyone else- living or dead- needs to have their arses kicked and their ears boxed. I also read elsewhere that WW2 veterans groups were also pissed off. I suppose that means all the veterans who voted for Labour in 1945 and contributed to kicking Churchill out of office were traitorous scum too then, eh?

Screw you, Fatty Soames. You aren't even half the reactionary bigot your grandfather was, never mind any pretentions you might have towards claiming the more inspiring parts of his personality and mind as your own.

I'm also oddly comforted that a need was felt to raise awareness of mental illness in Norwich. Dear concerned charities, they are not mentally ill, they are Norfolk people. It's not down to synaptic malfunction or chemical imbalance, those people act like that because they shag their cousins.