Theresa May Pushes ahead for the Maggie Thatcher Memorial in Parliament Square
Theresa May intends to install a Margaret Thatcher statue in Parliament Square where it will join statues of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi — to name but a few.
Theresa May seems intent on getting the memorial installed, regardless of objections from Thatcher’s family and the Parliamentary Estate.
Local conservation group, The Thorney Island Society, has said, “While Lady Thatcher was also widely respected it cannot be said that she was uncontroversial in this country.” Indeed, she was a divisive Prime Minister and her legacy strongly divides opinions to this day.
One of the biggest fears is that the statue will be vandalised and will be costly to maintain. Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Daily Mail: “Blocking it for fear of thugs and vandals is the lily-livered approach that Lady Thatcher most disdained.”
The ten foot, bronze statue is reported to have cost 300,000 pounds.

In my opinion, the political nature of the statue is irrelevant; Margaret Thatcher was a land mark prime minister- the first female prime minister and a notable part of British history — as many of those memorialised in parliament square were.
What really bothers me is that Theresa May is able to find 300,000 pounds to pay for it, despite the lack of a magic money tree. 300,000 pounds is a lot of money in times of austerity and could pay the entire university tuition of over 11 students or the salary of 13 nurses for a year or around 79 people’s Job Seeker’s allowance — for the year!
Instead, we will get a 10 foot, Bronze statue that is largely objected to and serves little purpose other than to fulfil the desires of our Prime Minister.
I strongly believe that a Prime Minister who has such an “unshakeable sense of purpose” could find a much better use for 300,000 pounds in times of austerity.
Why is May so determined to get the statue? I think that Britain’s second female prime minister is afraid that her legacy will pale in comparison to that of Baroness Thatcher’s, especially now as her approval rating is so low and she’s fallen out of favour with both voters and her party. I think that, before her untimely exit from the position of Prime Minister, she wants to achieve something concrete — or, in this case, bronze.
