Nanny Bans Baroness Thatcher

Sometimes Nanny's spinelessness knows no bounds, as she kowtows to her perceptions of what is and isn't "controversial".

Step forward CBS Outdoor (a purveyor of advertising space in the London Underground), which has decided to ban posters of Margaret Thatcher due to be shown at Westminster Tube station.

The posters, six portraits of the late prime minister (including a depiction of her as Queen Victoria), were due to run from this week. The portraits initially ran in an exhibition at Gallery Different in central London, which opened last Wednesday, the day of Baroness Thatcher's funeral. They included a pastiche of Peter Paul Ruben's The Assumption of the Virgin Mary with Baroness Thatcher's face replacing Mary's.

For why has CBS Outdoor banned them?

It claims that running them would break Transport for London (TfL) guidelines.

The BBC quote a CBS spokeswoman:

"If an advert has messages or images that relate to public controversy or sensitivity it will not be run."

TfL, trying to avoid controversy itself, claims that the decision to ban the posters is down solely to CBS.

The decision to ban the posters on the grounds of them being "controversial" is of course utter tosh, art is meant to be challenging and controversial; not every piece of "art" should be suitable for the lids of chocolate boxes!

Thatcher herself would have been perfectly happy with the characterisations, political satirists of the day were far more "cruel" with their characterisations of her when she was Prime Minister.

Put the posters up, and unleash the controversy!

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Prat of The Week - Councillor David Dobbie

My goodness it has been a fair length of time since I have awarded my prestigious, and internationally renowned, Prat of The Week Award.

Therefore without further ado, I bestow it upon West Lindsey District Councillor David Dobbie.

For why?

Just ask the parents of the kids who use the council playing fields in Gainsborough.

For reasons best known to Dobbie, he recently decided to place a wall mural on the walls of the changing rooms that shows wanted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony and his child soldiers toting machine guns.

The artwork was commissioned by Dobbie, and the £60 cost paid for out of his councillor's initiative fund.

Dobbie said he intended the art work to raise awareness of Kony's regime as one of the world's most wanted men, and the plight of his child army.

Now that's fair enough. The only problem is the location.

What do the kids who use the fields know of Kony, and what on earth could they possibly do to stop Kony (now that they have been made aware of who he is)?

Political artwork is perfectly acceptable, and indeed can motivate and effectuate change. However, in order for it to have the desired effect it needs to be placed in a location that is appropriate for the message that it is trying to convey.

Placing an "IRA type" image of a gun torturing thug near a kids' play area will not achieve the desired result and, quite possibly, glamorise the concept of wielding a weapon in the minds of the kids.

Town Mayor Harry Clarke was also less than impressed, he noted that the council had not been told about it and has issued instructions for another image to be used instead.

David Dobbie, well deserving Prat of The Week!

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Nanny Bans Swans

Oh dear Nanny does make an utter fool of herself sometimes, as the good people who run The Scream gallery in Mayfair will attest to.

The gallery had been exhibiting a photograph of a naked woman and a swan (a modern depiction of the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan - according to Greek mythology, the god Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce Leda. She later bore his children, Polydeuces and Helen of Troy) for a month, when one day a Metropolitan police officer saw the image from a bus.

Can you guess what happened next children?

Yes, that's right, two uniformed officers went to the gallery and told Jag Mehta, the sales director at the gallery, that the photo suggested that the gallery condoned bestiality (which is a criminal offence).

Factoid: swans are highly aggressive creatures, how the hell could anyone get near enough to one to be able to interact with it in any sexual way?

Ironically the exhibition was over and so the gallery took the image down, but the police remained until they saw that it had been taken down.

Miss Mehta did explain to the police that the myth of Leda’s rape by Zeus was an acceptable form of erotica in Victorian times. However, the police replied (according to The Telegraph) that:

“They said they didn’t know anything about the myth.” 

Despite telling the gallery to remove the image (which the gallery is still happy to show to people who wish to see it) the Metropolitan Police have said that the incident had not been recorded as a crime.

Ironically, despite ordering the gallery to the picture down, the police have not taken action against the Evening Standard for publishing a picture of it!

I am confused, if it's a crime to show the picture in a gallery why is it not a crime to show the picture in a newspaper and on its website?

Oh and while we are on the subject of swans, why is it that Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake (where a prince falls in love with a princess who had been turned into a swan) allowed to be performed?

Censorship does seem to cause an awful lot of confusion, especially when people have to judge what they define to be "offensive", doesn't it?

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