A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left.
Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
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Monday, July 10, 2006
In the absence of a statue...
Hackney Council actually has policy, passed in the early '90s, to stick a statue of Herbert Morrison in the Town Hall Square. I'm not going to push for that to be implemented, but in its absence, he gets a pic here:
An little-known fact about Morrison during his year as Mayor of Hackney - he refused to wear the fur-lined robe and other trappings of office, including the civic chain (presumably they were emblems of bourgeois oppression of the working man? He was quite young when he was Mayor!). So when they took his photo to hang with the other civic mayors in Hackney Town Hall, they had to paint the chain on - you can see it if you look closely.
Jess, that reminds me of the photographs of Mayors that used to decorate the corridors of Walsall Council. In 1953 I think it was, the Mayor died before his civic photograph could be taken. So... they found a picture of him and superimposed his head on to the body of a previous Mayor. It was soooo bloody obvious. Not the last two-faced politician to run that town though.
Maybe it's time to start pushing for more statues in Hackney?
ReplyDeleteI would have thought you were campaigning for the deification of his grandson.
ReplyDeleteYou must be confused about this progeny issue, Bob. See my article "Statue Competition Entries Flood In" - Meg Hillier nomination'
ReplyDeleteAn little-known fact about Morrison during his year as Mayor of Hackney - he refused to wear the fur-lined robe and other trappings of office, including the civic chain (presumably they were emblems of bourgeois oppression of the working man? He was quite young when he was Mayor!). So when they took his photo to hang with the other civic mayors in Hackney Town Hall, they had to paint the chain on - you can see it if you look closely.
ReplyDeleteJess, that reminds me of the photographs of Mayors that used to decorate the corridors of Walsall Council. In 1953 I think it was, the Mayor died before his civic photograph could be taken. So... they found a picture of him and superimposed his head on to the body of a previous Mayor. It was soooo bloody obvious. Not the last two-faced politician to run that town though.
ReplyDelete