The Bronze Lady: Symbol of Progress or Pain?

The small town of Grantham, of less than fifty-thousand residents, has recently become the centre of a political storm involving a Prime Minister of 30 years ago, the allocation of public funding, the legacy of financialization and neoliberalism, as well as the role of statues in commemorating controversial figures. The latter being not so surprising in 2020.

Ultimately, the scandal surrounds a long mooted statue of Margaret Thatcher, former leader of the Conservative party for 16 years and Prime Minister throughout the 1980s. This statue, initially proposed by Westminster council, before being rejected out of fears of attracting vandalism, is to be built in Grantham, as ordered by the Tory controlled South Kesteven District Council in 2018. Tomorrow, at the time of writing, the statue is set to be unveiled in a green midway between two existing statues, one of the 19th-century MP Frederick Tollemache and another of Sir Isaac Newton.

Those who favour the erection of this monument have argued that Grantham, being a heavily Tory-voting area and Thatcher’s birthplace, is the perfect location in which to erect a statue of the woman. This is in a similar fashion to the 1988 unveiling of a statue of post-war PM Clement Attlee outside Limehouse Public Library, in Attlee’s former constituency. Moreover, while controversial, Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister, from which campaigners have argued could serve as a symbol of female empowerment and a drive for greater women’s participation in the political process. Afterall, only a third of MPs are women, despite women representing half the population.

The frivolous expenditure being splashed by the party of austerity is somewhat ironic and perhaps symbolic of Thatcher’s own failed economic agenda

Nevertheless, arguably, this story is a product of the backlash this statue has provoked. Firstly, as pointed out by Labour councillors in Grantham, the statue’s unveiling ceremony will cost £100,000 in taxpayer money at a time of economic recession. This seemingly demonstrates the Conservative party’s lack of regard for small businesses, whose business rates will have to raise to cover council budget deficits, or the increasing number of both employed and unemployed workers forced into food banks to survive. I sympathise with this notion – while not a significantly large sum of public money, the frivolous expenditure being splashed by the party of austerity is somewhat ironic and perhaps symbolic of Thatcher’s own failed economic agenda.

Indeed, the legacy Thatcher left Britain was one of ruin. We went from a nation of full employment, to structural unemployment. Between 1955 and 1979, the unemployment rate in the UK averaged at 3.3%. Between 1980 and 1995, it averaged 9.7%. Even more gruelling, in 1979, 13.4% of households lived under the poverty line. By 1990, Thatcher’s last year in power, the rate had shot up to 22.2%. Most starkly though, was the unequal pain experienced in the UK, with the North and Midlands, as well as Scotland and Wales, facing the brunt of this collapse in living standards, which includes parts of the country like Grantham, where the impact is still felt today. Economic inactivity is on average 2.6% higher in Lincolnshire than in Great Britain as a whole.

Instead of legitimising Thatcher in the eyes of our increasingly liberal society, the statue has become a focus point of rage for young people

This pain is real for millions of working class people across the country and so the statue in many ways has seemingly done the opposite of what the Tory councillors intended. Instead of legitimising Thatcher in the eyes of our increasingly liberal society, the statue has become a focus point of rage for young people, most of whom are facing similar economic woes due to the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and Tory austerity. This is best exemplified by the pledge of over 2,300 people to show up to an ‘egg-throwing contest’ on the same day as the unveiling of a statue.

Ultimately, little I or 2,300 socialists on Facebook say will make little difference. The statue will be unveiled and Thatcherism, at least in the short run, is here to stay. However, I hope the Tory party does not succeed in whitewashing Thatcher as a working-class hero exercising ‘girl power,’ as Netflix’s series The Crown may have you believe. Therefore, the only advice I could give is to join a union, which would really have her rolling in her grave. Oh, and instead of lobbing eggs, use tomatoes. No reason.

The Bronze Lady: Symbol of Progress or Pain?

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