The University of Winchester has unveiled its almost £24,000 statue of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, angering staff who have faced years of cutbacks.
The £23,760 ($32,619) bronze monument to the teenager, who was elevated to international prominence by global leaders after she began skipping classes at her publicly-funded school on Fridays to protest a perceived lack of action on climate change, was slammed as a “vanity project” by staff at the university.
The Winchester branch of the University and College Union (UCU) said that although it “supports the role that Thunberg has played globally… This money should have been better used by preventing redundancies and other cuts at the university” after years of austerity.
“The university’s distinctive approach to commissioning pieces of art is to do so in unminuted meetings and/or avoid any committee scrutiny,” the union added facetiously.
“Not the ideal approach when spending university money.”
The university leadership, for its part, defended its expensive statue.
“The university’s approach to art is to commission or purchase unusual and striking pieces which embody our distinctiveness and values,” pronounced Vice-Chancellor Joy Carter, insisting that “Greta is a young woman who, in spite of difficulties in her life, has become a world-leading environmental activist” and: “As the university for sustainability and social justice, we are proud to honor this inspirational woman in this way.”
The controversial move comes at a time when historic statues and memorials to Britain’s monarchs, prime ministers, war heroes, and great merchants and philosophers are being targeted by Black Lives Matter-inspired vandals, activists, and politicians, with some destroyed, some removed, and some “recontextualized” with plaques and information boards denouncing the figures they depict.
Read more at Breitbart
April fool right?
I’ve worked it out.
It’s their way of saying that no student of theirs ever achieved anything…
So they cast a statue of someone who went on a school strike.
And achieved nothing in the process. I think that last sentence applies to both Thunberg and Winchester.
So there is a link.
Non-achievement.
Thunberg is not a British citizen, nor even a member of the British diaspora. Nor did she attend the institution as a student. I cannot see the link…
If a female icon was needed, then why not Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck?
It’s mighty hard to take this seriously.
Looking at the right hand of the statue – isn’t the wrong finger extended?
After all this is the brainwashed Child that the liberal rag Time chose as their Person of the Year providing that time is a leftists liberal propaganda Rag that pushes such false ideas like Pagan False Religions Gun Control and Climate Change/Global warming and even prints a Kids issue TIME FOR KIDS to get them to subcribe to their leftists liberal rag when their adults
The university should also erect a statue of Pinocchio. In erecting a statue of Greta they are honoring one puppet, why not another? It has always been obvious that Greta is a puppet but this has been proven beyond all doubt when she accidentally posted emails from her handlers telling her what to say and how to act.
“The university’s distinctive approach to commissioning pieces of art is to do so in unminuted meetings and/or avoid any committee scrutiny.” This is exactly how much of the climate change agenda is implemented. The less scrutiny they have, the easier to implement their destructive agenda.
Well said. Greta is a shill / puppet.
They should be pissed about their university erecting a monument to ignorance.
How much CO2 was released in making this Idol ?
A third level Institute throws away thousands of pounds which were desperately needed elsewhere on a statue of an indoctrinated political puppet and secondary school drop out. All just score PR brownie points with people that push whatever psuedo religious nonsensical cause de jour is currently in fashion. How about they spend that money on their staff and facilities to ensure a high quality of education for their students so humanity can exit this dark age in which the ignorant and corrupt get the biggest say in how we run our lives.
A false idol for false God or in this case Goddess so liberals can have something to bow down to to dance to like with the Golden Calf and Moses and the 10 Comandments
Too bad she’s not holding examples of shrinking body parts she so wants to save.