LETTER: No support for Churchill

From Mr Edward Ebden

Sir: While the sculpture of the late Oscar Nemon is rightly praised and admired in this country, particularly his sculpture of our wartime leader Winston Churchill, I hardly see how a 40ft bronze of Churchill on London's South bank would re-instil a sense of the "bulldog spirit" into our nation. The Fine Arts Commission in the Sixties were right to conclude that the project, conceived on such a scale, was "tasteless and overblown".

As we approach the millennium, the British revival must come about by a robust and proud sense of our national identity, embracing change while valuing, but not clinging to, the past. Surely, Nemon Stuart, the sculptor's son, is wrong to conclude that as a nation we do not understand how to capitalise on our nation's past, as the events marking the end of the Second World War this summer, haveproved.

Yours sincerely,

Edward Ebden

Beckenham, Kent

20 September