The statue of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a straitjacket which was unveiled in Norwich to draw attention to the stigma surrounding mental health has brought complaints from old soldiers and members of the late politician's family.
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Norwich North MP Dr Ian Gibson and Cliff Prior, chief executive of mental health charity Rethink, revealed the statue inthe City as part of a campaign which is striving to stamp out stigma and ignorance surrounding issues such as manic depression
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Sir Winston Churchill was chosen because despite dealing with the symptoms of manic depression throughout his life, he was able to become Prime Minister, lead the country during World War Two and be voted “The Greatest Briton” in the recentnational poll.
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But political leaders and members of Sir Winston's family have condemned the “distasteful” and “inappropriate” statue.Nicholas Soames, Tory MP for Mid Sussex and Sir Winston's grandson, commented in the Eastern Daily Press “What seems to me a very worthwhile charity seems to have completely lost their way and done something which is offensive and stupid and turned a sensible campaign into a joke.”
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Ray Holland, chairman of the Norwich branch of the Royal British Legion, said: “It does seem to me an inappropriate thing to do. I would have thought there are much less offensive ways of raising their image and getting their message acrossthan using a statue of Churchill. I am sure it will cause offence to a number of war pensioners and war widows.”
Perhaps, one must consider that had Sir Winston's inspired leadership, particularly in 1940, not saved our great nation from the evils of Nazi occupation mental health patients in Britain would have, as happened in Germany and Axis occupied teritoritories, been brutally mass murdered.
Statues are erected to portray a message and 'Rethinks' statue of the great man is no exception. The the final word, we believe, should go to the French Philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778): ''I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it''
Perhaps, one must consider that had Sir Winston's inspired leadership, particularly in 1940, not saved our great nation from the evils of Nazi occupation mental health patients in Britain would have, as happened in Germany and Axis occupied teritoritories, been brutally mass murdered.
Statues are erected to portray a message and 'Rethinks' statue of the great man is no exception. The the final word, we believe, should go to the French Philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778): ''I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it''
3 comments:
What a disgusting thing to do, to portray a great man in such a manner. The two "men" who unveiled it are a disgrace to a great Country.
Has anyone actually read "the great mans" fawning letters to Roosevelt. They are there to read and digest. His infatuation with his American mother may have much to do with the way he held the US in such awe. His father, hurridly married to his mother oddly in the UK Paris Embassy almost seems to have rejected the son.
America intended to make France a "protectorate" of the the US and Churchill attempted to obstruct De Gaulle and his taking of Paris with French Forces that broke away from the main Allied assault and raced for Paris thus scuppering the US plan.
His "illustrious" history is scattered with errors of judgement, the Dardanelles, Sydney Street etc etc. One wonders how much drink contributed to this.
His foreign policy seems to have allowed US hegemony as we retreated from our collapsing Empire and as a much later example of which was the US stab in the UK and French backs over Suez (of course not Churchills doing but we can see the US tend which resulted in it).
No I'd say the strait jacket was ideal attire for this useful fool for America as it would be for anyone who believes the hype about him!
France for the French as they say and you as a native American are as about as welcome and as influential in the US as a rotting fish is on a fishmongers slab.
What country allows a manic drunk to run it? Germany? Russia? Ho Ho the good old US of A with an alcholic, coke sniffing Chicken Hawk perhaps. I think you want to get a grip Tonto. There are a good many Brits who despise a US that leaves its poor to rot after storms and is the world leader in race related problems, gun murder and drugs, bombing people and genocide.
ANY leader in the UK that wants you shower for allies is definately off his trolly and looking for that good old American way of life "friendly fire" otherwise known as "stabbing your ally in the back", you lot would know a lot about it but spend most of your time denying it after of course you've made a profit.
Quite frankly the ONLY reason that you really get a look in is that too many Brits are not willing to learn a foreign language and are inward looking half believing we "punch above our weight" in the world and still look back misty eyed for the Empire that we seem to have gained in a fit of absent mindedness and lost with lend-lease and the Marshall Plan. They do not see you for what you are, largely at your governmental levels the sweepings of Europe done good and with about as much class.
Some people don't see the danger that the US has become and annoyingly your culture invasion is reducing our culture to rubbish and our young to the levels of IQ of your moronic gun toteing offspring by means of being overwhelmed in the media and communications. The American way is not the only way, it is one of many but many like Churchill have been seduced by it.
The reason I post "anonymous" is I am indeed afraid to be identified and my location given away only to find that elements of your Trailer Trash Army (Hillbilly Division) will as you Chief Presidential Monkey put it "smoke me out" i.e. bomb anything in a 50 mile radius, precision like of course.
I frankly do not give a toss whether you helped make yourself a profit in two world wars, lost the flower of American youth (poppies as far as the CIA are concerned) and brought universal sufferage to the ant after shipping large quantities of drugs via Air America out of Laos.
But there is a message for you in all this "GO HOME YANKEE", you'll find it on walls throughout the civilised world. Take all your grubby profits and possessions, all your military kit and the two dimensional users of it, all your "culture" and "food" (McDonalds ye gods) especially the GM stuff, all you bribery, corruption, drug dealing intelligence agencies. Go home, pull up the drawbridge, skulk away and watch yourselves being outbred by the poor, afro-Americans and invaded by "wet backs" as you so quaintly name them. Then come back in 50 years or so and we probably won't understand the gutter language you will use but there will be some element of Spanish to latch onto I'm sure.
Churchill is symbolic of the mess we have got ourselves into and our inability to see the wood for the trees any longer By allying ourselves with you we have become a vassal state, triapsing round the world following your "Army" and doing your bidding when we hould have been looking after our own interests and taking a real lead in "old Europe" as old Donny Bumsfelt and the other Chicken Hawks put it.
I want my taxes and my army used in my interests and not securing your gas guzzling lard arses in to the middle of the century. I want my parents and eventually me looked after with proper healthcare not securing contracts for fly by night US run PFI hospitals in the UK NHS. When our Prime Minister gets up I want him to speak for our nation and not go on bended knee kissing the backside of someone with an IQ lower than room temperature.
I would remind eveyone in the UK that our twit Chancellor will be making the last payment on the Marshall Plan this June nearly 60 years after the end of WWII. That is why Churchill should be quite rightly seen in a strait jacket and anyone else that has any intentions of locking UK intrests into the ongoing crimal enterprise that is the good ole US of A!
Have a good day ye all!
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