Proposed Mandela statue stirs political rift in London

LONDON — The latest battle of Trafalgar is getting ugly.

Mayor Ken Livingstone wants to erect a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square alongside monuments to British military heroes. City officials oppose the idea, and in a showdown this week, one of Britain's most respected sculptors dubbed the proposed Mandela statue "mediocre." Livingstone compared that sculptor's work to a "dog mess."

Beneath the aesthetic mudslinging lies a political divide over what kind of heroes should be commemorated in London's most famous square.

"Suppose I had proposed, in a moment of euphoric bipartisanship, to erect a statue of (former Conservative Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher in Trafalgar Square, would I have had problems with Westminster City Council?" the left-leaning mayor asked the Labour Party's annual conference this week.

He answered his own question: "No."

Conservative-controlled Westminster Council has rejected Livingstone's plans for a 9-foot-tall bronze statue on the square's north terrace, outside the main entrance to the National Gallery.

The council says its opposition is practical, not political. It does not like the look of the proposed statue by sculptor Ian Walters, which depicts Mandela clad in a characteristic loose-fitting shirt, his hands raised as if in animated conversation. It also wants the monument placed in front of the South African Embassy on the eastern edge of the square.

Livingstone wants Mandela at the heart of the piazza, already dominated by another Nelson.

A statue of 19th-century naval hero Adm. Horatio Nelson stands atop an 185-foot-tall column, and the square itself is named for the admiral's 1805 victory over the French and Spanish fleets.

Also in the square are statues of King George IV and Victorian generals Sir Henry Havelock and Sir Charles James Napier.

Paul Drury, a consultant for conservation group English Heritage, which also opposes the mayor's plan, has said that placing an "informal, small-scale statue" of Mandela alongside military heroes "would be a major and awkward change in the narrative of the square."

Changing that narrative is exactly what the radical mayor — once nicknamed "Red Ken" by the press — wants to do. Shortly after his 2000 election, Livingstone suggested replacing the military statues with figures "that ordinary Londoners would know."