National reactions to the statue of Margaret Thatcher being installed in Grantham

It’s been a week since the controversial statue of Margaret Thatcher was installed in Grantham’s St Peter’s Hill.

The £300,000 bronze monument immediately caused a stir and debate from both supporters and opponents of the first female Prime Minister of the UK.

Within hours of its 7am installation last Sunday, it had already been egged by a man later revealed to be 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, a deputy director at the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.

Mr Webster’s mother-in-law recently described his actions as “childish”.

Quoted in the MailOnline she said: “Margaret Thatcher lasted a long time in power. She was a trailblazer as the first woman prime minister and she had such energy, even though I know she slept very little.

“I’m very surprised to hear about all of this [egg throwing]. I’m going to have to call my daughter. I wouldn’t have thought Jeremy would be the sort of person to do this. It seems very childish to me – he has a responsible job.”

There have been reports of other antisocial behaviour taking place including people urinating up the statue, but investigations into these are yet to be confirmed by officials.

Away from the statue itself, others took to social media to react to the new monument.

Below are some of the top posts on social media:

An enterprising egg-deavour?

PoliticsJOE were some of the first to see Jeremy Webster’s actions and wonder if they could turn it into a money-making opportunity?

Taking egging to the egg-streme maybe?

Twitterer @BolsoverBeast thought Mr Webster’s actions should be expanded as a way to… get more people involved?

“She already has memorials”

Twitter user @RichMcKendrick highlighted many of Thatcher’s opponents’ thoughts on her legacy.

A new public loo?

Attila the Stockbroker’s Facebook post was also one of those shared by a few people, suggesting an “alternative” use for the statue.

Another new statue?

Twitter user @ChloeSchlosberg felt the actions of Mr Webster should be marked, not by a criminal investigation, but by a new monument.

Some called back to the fate of other statues

@Irritatedllama called back to the fate of slave trader Edward Colston who was thrown into the Bristol Harby in June 2020.

But which is the true parody?

It wasn’t long before a parody account of the statue was set up on Twitter – nor before “she” was interacting with other parody accounts.

A… positive view?

There were supporters of the statue, however, Darren Grimes from GBNews was one of the few popular posts calling on people not to “give in to threats of petty vandalism”. He later posted the statue should be in parliament – where it was previously rejected from.

National campaign calls for more tolerance

The @_SaveOurStatues campaign was pleased to see the memorial, and called for more tolerance of the build.

A tempered response

Some, like @Jonnyhibberd were more measured in their response.