Churchill statue condemned

A CONTROVERSIAL nine feet sculpture of Winston Churchill in a straitjacket, which was unveiled in Norwich at the weekend, has been condemned by his grandson “an ignorant gimmick.

A CONTROVERSIAL nine feet sculpture of Winston Churchill in a straitjacket, which was unveiled in Norwich at the weekend, has been condemned by his grandson “an ignorant gimmick.”

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames was echoing criticism by Sir Patrick Cormack of a statue commissioned by the charity Rethink to highlight the stigma of mental illness.

Sir Patrick (Staffordshire South) told MPs: “Those with mental health problems are not helped by ignorant gimmicks. Is it not therefore appalling that in Norwich they have erected a statue to the greatest Englishman of the last millennium, put it in a straitjacket?

“Is that not insult both to his memory and to those with genuine mental health problems?”'

Anne McGuire, minister for the disabled, said she was not aware of the incident but added: “I think anything that denigrates people who have a disability of any form, in whatever way, cannot be condoned in any way.”