Via Bookworm Room, I learned that the US Embassy in London, located in posh Grosvenor Square, is about to be graced with a new 10 ft. tall bronze statue of Ronald Regan, loctaed in the park in front. Not everyone is pleased:
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the current inhabitants of the embassy - who are still waiting for President Obama to confirm Mr Tuttle's replacement - appear less keen to have a larger-than-life statue of the darling of the American Right on their doorstep.
"This is not something that we have requested oractively tried to get brought about," an embassy spokesman said yesterday. "We're happy to have our presidents honoured but this statue was not a US Government initiative."
Asked whether the mission would take the statue with it when it leaves Grosvenor Square for its new head-quarters in Nine Elms, south of the Thames, he replied: "It's not our statue."
That's about as close as a diplomat gets to a sneer in the course of normal life. Diplomatically defensible, of course.
I like this touch:
To acknowledge Mr Reagan's contribution to the ending of the Cold War, a piece of the Berlin Wall will be installed in the front of the statue in Grosvenor Square.
Too bad the embassy is moving to new (and presumably larger) quarters in a less fashionable area south of the Thames. Bureaucrats multiply like mice. We'll just have to raise money for a statue there. And I don't have Obama in mind.
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