Egging on the proles

May 23, 2022 9:23 AM

In 2014, UK sculptor Douglas Jennings was commissioned by the Public Memorials Appeal (funded through public donations) to create a 10ft tall bronze statue of the late Margaret Thatcher. This was rejected by Westminster Council in 2018. Earlier this month the statue was installed in her home town Grantham with some local support. Within hours the statue had been egged allegedly and inaccurately by Jeremy Webster an employee of University of Leicester. Within days, Oli Dugmore, entrepreneur, set up a stall next to the statue selling £10 eggs. tl;dr: 5 minute YT.

Similar 20 years previously, cw; statue decapitation.

posted by BobTheScientist (26 comments total)

"Someone egged the Margaret Thatcher statue!"
"Has the criminal been jailed?"
"No, she died years ago."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:37 AM on May 23, 2022 [96 favorites]

did he throw 28 eggs?
posted by chavenet at 9:39 AM on May 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

A friend mused, "It's nice that they installed another gender neutral toilet, but I wish it were more accessible!"
posted by schyler523 at 9:41 AM on May 23, 2022 [35 favorites]

Hey listen, that guy selling the eggs is just engaging in free-market capitalism. He's clearly identified a need that government was not serving.
posted by subdee at 10:07 AM on May 23, 2022 [31 favorites]

You wouldn't be able to sell those eggs in communist Yorkshire.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 10:10 AM on May 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

New Videogame Dropped - (Reference for those confused)
posted by lalochezia at 10:12 AM on May 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

There was an image floating around, explaining that the chemicals in tomatoes can corrode bronze, illustrated with a photograph of the Thatcher statue as an example of a bronze statue.
posted by acb at 10:45 AM on May 23, 2022 [13 favorites]

I wanted to recommend the "Margaret Thatcher Fun Facts!" Twitter account (spoiler: it was a bot that, once a day, posted "She's still dead!") but it looks to have been closed.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:50 AM on May 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

There was an image floating around, explaining that the chemicals in tomatoes can corrode bronze

Yes, this alludes to what I'm interested in: the defensive measures. Since the Tories are so worried about history in the wake of some of the most brilliant history I've been witness to in recent memory, I want to know what they've done to keep the Iron Bronze Lady from getting the rope neck or the tomato melt. Have they impaled her on three metres of reinforced rebar all the way up to her empty little skull cavity? Is there a film of magic Tory dust protecting her from the elements/fruit acid? They know full well what a target they've erected, and there must be more than just an extra-tall plinth and some poxy CCTV protecting their precious totem. Very curious... for art historical reasons of course.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 10:58 AM on May 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

I bet you could drop urine bombs from a drone, if nothing else. I am sure that a squad with paintball guns could hit the camera first and then move in on the statue. There's likely a dozen ways to deface and never get caught.
posted by Ber at 12:28 PM on May 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

Let’s just say, as an idle musing, that mere defacement isn’t the goal.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 12:32 PM on May 23, 2022

This is the part where I remind everyone that tomato juice can cause terrible irreparable damage to bronze, and that no one should under any circumstances throw any tomatoes at the statue.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:39 PM on May 23, 2022 [14 favorites]

Frankie Boyle on Thatcher's Funeral
posted by lalochezia at 12:54 PM on May 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

If you throw anything at a statue of someone as esteemed as the late Margaret Thatcher, be careful to avoid throwing anything that might cause irreversible damage in the form of Bronze Disease
posted by MengerSponge at 2:46 PM on May 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

⚠️ This article is being presented only to describe the physics and mechanics of removing statues, in light of national attention being drawn to the removal of Confederate monuments and statues. Popular Mechanics is not encouraging anyone to remove any statues. There is a risk of injury whenever you try to remove or destroy a statue, even if you were to apply information, materials, or tools presented in this article.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 3:19 PM on May 23, 2022 [18 favorites]

"If you sell an egg, you'll be party to criminal damage"? Oh piss off.
posted by pompomtom at 6:33 PM on May 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

What comes to mind is Michael "Mr Mike" O' Donoghue's impressions during the first years of Saturday Night Live of various celebrities -- Mike Douglas, Tony Orlando & Dawn and so forth -- immediately after 18 inch knitting needles had been thrust into their eyes with said celebrities clutching their eyes, falling to their knees and screaming in pain.

The former Prime Minister's statue amounts to the moral equivalent thereto and simply viewing it should be actionable. Boris Johnson's and the Conservative Party could be sued in perpetuity for damages and the proceeds donated to the National Health system for the accounts of the poor.

Or a gofundme could be started to erect a replica 18 foot high razor wire topped
US border wall around said effigy as an additional tribute to the equally magnanimous former President Donald Trump. That would make for suitable monument to the whole two mints in one of them.
posted by y2karl at 10:13 PM on May 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

Has Grantham no slave traders?
posted by Phanx at 1:45 AM on May 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Phanx, but she died years ago.

It makes me happy that IsThatcherDeadYet.co.uk is still up.
posted by scruss at 6:38 AM on May 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm in the US, but I'm good for an egg fund donation.
posted by thivaia at 7:19 AM on May 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

It’s a nice day for it.

Most British response ever.
posted by bendy at 8:04 AM on May 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

I had no idea that Thatcher was 10 feet tall. You really can learn interesting history from statues!
posted by srboisvert at 8:23 AM on May 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

the theme song for egg throwers
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:23 AM on May 25, 2022

In life Thatcher was indeed ten feet tall. She was also truly made of iron - iron that glowed a dull red from the heat of the rage within.
Her eyes were spheres of cracked obsidian carved with sigils that could blind anyone who made eye contact.
As she strode across the blighted land her feet sank into the ground and as she passed her footprints filled with an oily dark smoke that poisoned whatever it's tendrils touched.
When necessary she could dislocate her jaw and throw her head back to reveal a throat filled with circles of dirty diamond teeth that constantly vibrated and rotated. She once ate a Scottish mountain in response to a poor by-election result.
UK politics in the eighties was fucking hardcore.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:06 AM on May 25, 2022 [4 favorites]

In life Thatcher was indeed ten feet tall.
posted by pompomtom at 7:34 AM on May 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

She'd've sunk Scotland were it possible.
posted by pompomtom at 7:36 AM on May 26, 2022