![]() ![]() ![]() Henry Campbell-Bannerman, a humane Scots Liberal, is on a leafy road in Stirling. Lord Salisbury, an influential Conservative peer whose third term ended in 1902, guards the entrance to his family estate at Hatfield, north of London. By serendipity, it also produces a neat political balance. Leaving aside the special case of Westminster itself – Winston Churchill looms over Parliament Square, Margaret Thatcher is safely ensconced inside the Houses of Parliament complex – it would make a good quiz question: which prime ministers since 1900 are remembered in this way, and where? An unlikely collection is the answer, and it evidently has more to do with local enthusiasm than any official initiative. Overwhelmingly male they may be, but surprisingly few of the memorialised are twentieth-century leaders. A by-product of the proliferating disputes has been a rare focus on the warriors and statesmen who still dot Britain’s city squares and public parks. The politics of statuary have been big news in Britain this year, beginning when a group of Oxford University students echoed their counterparts in South Africa by campaigning for the removal of a figure of Cecil Rhodes, the Victorian imperialist and (with his ill-gotten gains) well-known benefactor. ![]()
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