To govern is to choose. So what have Labour’s ministers chosen to hung on their walls? Raiding the Government Art Collection for the pick of the portraits is one of the perks of being a minister, along with a red box, car and driver. Mr S has done some digging and via a Freedom of Information request is delighted to tell his readers that some Starmtroopers have opted for some ironic choices in their office furnishings.
First up, it’s Rachel Reeves, that well-known friend of the farmers. The Chancellor, who whacked up inheritance tax on struggling rural landowners in her first Budget, has a watercolour on her walls in the Treasury. It depicts farm labourers tilling the land and is titled ‘Sowing Potatoes on a Windy Day’. Not if Rachel’s beancounters have anything to do with it!
Next up is Richard Hermer, the legal eagle at the heart of the government. The Attorney General has come under fire in recent months for his role in the Chagos Islands handover and the decision to withdraw the UK’s objections to the ICC for the arrest warrant of Netanyahu. So it is fitting perhaps that this very model of a modern human rights lawyer has chosen the ‘Map of Nowhere’ by Grayson Perry to hang up at the AGO.
Other colleagues have chosen more traditional Labour themes. Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has gone for ‘The Strike’ by Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings. Angela Rayner plumped for ‘Marching Out’ in the Cabinet Office by ex-miner George Robson while Reeves also has a copy of Gillian Wearing’s memorial to the Suffragettes. Talk about militancy at the heart of government.
Others appear well on board with No. 11’s growth mission. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has ‘The Model Makers’ by Norman Blamey with Science Secretary Peter Kyle opting for Nick Waplington’s ‘Random Growth Without Loss of Stability.’ Will that be the case for Rachel Reeves?
Mastering the art of politics is one thing, but the politics of art is quite another…
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