Trafalgar Square is the iconic centre of London. On three of the four plinths there are statues of 19th century figures Sir Charles Napier, who grabbed Sindh, and Sir Henry Havelock, who fought the mutineers during 1857 in India and squashed the mutiny in Kanpur, before the mutineers rose again. He was eventually successful, even though frail and dying, but he certainly would not be a very popular choice for a statue in India! The third plinth has William IV, who was King briefly during the 1830s. But the fourth plinth has been kept for a new sculpture, which gets replaced by another one at regular intervals. It is a good idea as the new sculptures are more relevant to our times.
The latest is a sculpture by David Shrigley in bronze, seven metres tall titled “Really Good”. It is a clenched hand with an elongated thumb so you could say it looks like “thumbs up” for London. However, for other viewers it looks distinctly phallic and sticks out (not very aesthetically) like a sore thumb. For most of us used to a fizzy drink with a similar looking (though less phallic) logo, it is nothing to give a thumbs-up to. But the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, favoured the more positive aspect of it — when he inaugurated it on a dank Wednesday morning last week. He said the statue showed London was ready to face the post-Brexit world. Since the sculpture is heavily black, some people read it as a dark defiant gesture. This is Shrigley’s fourth time on the plinth. The sculpture has been criticised by some, while others love it. But certainly among the colonial figures that grace Trafalgar Square this somewhat strange looking epitome of “black power” is a very contemporary statement of a changing world — and a changing London.
Otherwise we have been agog with the story of the popular TV show The Great British Bake Off (GBBO). Last year the popular BBC show won headlines because the winner, Nadiya Hussain. was such an affirmation of multi-racial Britain and that too on the 90th birthday of the Queen for whom she baked a special cake. Now to the horror and shock of all GBBO has been snapped up by Channel Four offering four times what the BBC was paying. Paul Hollywood, one of the judges, has migrated to Channel Four, but Mary Berry has stuck with the BBC. Even Jeremy Corbyn was shocked and promised to bring GBBO back to the publicly-owned BBC channel. There have been all the puns about rising dough as the programme migrated. Someone called Berry a “tart” for staying on. Has the BBC been robbed of its main breadwinner?
William Shakespeare’s play Winter’s Tale has one of the most famous stage instructions “Exit, followed by a bear”. It turns out that a live bear was indeed used on stage. Near the Globe Theatre on the Thames where plays were performed, there were bear gardens where “bear baiting” was the spectacle. It was rather cruel since the bear would be chained and being baited by barking, snarling dogs. In the 17th century, theatres would alternate showing plays by Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson with days for bear baiting. Bear baiting went out of fashion. But now there is a move by Historic England to recover and preserve the bear garden sites before new high-rise buildings come up and destroy them. There is no idea of reviving bear baiting.
On a happier note, we had the wedding of two Olympian medalists. Laura Trott, the most successful British Olympian, married her partner Jason Kenny, who has six gold medals to his credit. Between them they have 10 gold medals. Let us hope their children can do better. Move over George. His sister Charlotte has been the new sensation during their parents’ tour of Canada. William and Kate took their children with them. We saw Charlotte walking and talking for the first time. Like her brother, she is a natural for PR and knows how to win them over.
So while William struggles in his French (Canada is officially bilingual) and Kate wows them with her clothes and her ever so slim figure (the result of rigorous exercises, we gather), it is the children who are winning the battle for Britain in Canada. This is also meant to be their last tour — as William and Kate have, it seems, decided that now they need to become “normal” children. What could that possibly mean? One butler less between the two of them? Chicken tikka masala may be the national dish but don’t say it to Prince Charles and Lady Camilla. It turns out that they avoid all onion, garlic and chillies as they are worried about their breath. When you have to shake many hands during your tours of duty, you never know who may be offended by royal fiery fumes emanating from royal mouths. So only plain British food for the Prince of Wales.
