On the Naughty Pedestal

Doubtless aware that the Angel of the North will be broken up or sold to a private collector at the earliest opportunity, its creator has intervened in one of the culture war's more prolonged skirmishes. Regarding the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University's Oriel College, Antony Gormley has advanced a sensible compromise between the righteous demands of the woke and the bottom-shifting cowardice of the college authorities. Rather than removing the statue, or even making the inscription more informative as suggested by your correspondent some little time ago, Gormley proposes turning the statue to face the wall. This would be an apt and evocative symbol of collective shame; which of course is why it almost certainly will not be adopted.