Rab Butler spoke of the art of politics but the politics of art is quite another matter. The summer recess will find many of Britain’s politicians perusing the world’s museums and art galleries. So as a treat to his readers Mr S can now reveal, via a Freedom of Information request, the treasures from the Parliamentary Art Collection that adorn the offices of the two front benches.
Sadly, much of the collection is rather predictable. Rishi Sunak, for instance, has depictions of a number of his predecessors. Tory deities William Pitt the Younger, Robert Peel, Benjamin Disraeli, and Winston Churchill all line his walls. Other PMs featured in the cabinet list include Spencer Perceval, the only one ever to have been assassinated, who hangs in the office of Alex Chalk, the Lord Chancellor. Might it have been placed there as a cautionary tale to a rising Tory star? Fortunately for Chalk, the only assassinations carried out in Westminster these days are political – just ask Nadine Dorries.
Pictures of parliament obviously abound, as well as some others of historic London. Some works reference events deep in our nation’s history: Tom Tugendhat, Minister for Security, enjoys a 1905 print entitled ‘Henry III renewing the Magna Carta in 1253.’ And if Edwardian nostalgia isn’t to ministers’ liking, they should consider themselves lucky to have anything to hang on their walls at all. For Michael Gove and Grant Shapps are among ten cabinet Ministers cursed with blank walls. Mr S just hopes this artistic vacuum is not reflective of the government’s lack of creative vision.
The blight is even worse in the offices of the shadow cabinet. Of the 28 members on whom Mr S requested information, for 18 the response came back as ‘None.’ And it’s slim pickings for the rest. Pat McFadden, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has a work ambiguously entitled ‘The Hall of an Oxford or Cambridge College.’ Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, has a suffragette picture entitled ‘What a woman may be and yet not have the vote.’ Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, goes for two suitably bland works ‘My Garden’ and ‘Barmouth’.
Still, there’s some nod to tradition in Ed Miliband’s office where a picture of Keir Hardie looks down on the Shadow Energy Secretary. The jokes really do write themselves…
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