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Google PlayA statue of Britain’s first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, has been egged just hours after its unveiling.
The £300,000 monument was originally slated for placement in Parliament Square in Westminster, but it was decided that it would be installed in Thatcher’s hometown of Linconshire instead due to fears of a “motivated far-left movement, who may be committed to public activism”.
Initially approved back in 2019 and delayed due to COVID-19, the statue was finally lowered onto a 10-foot granite platform and was immediately met with verbal and physical abuse from locals, the Irish Examiner reports.
After a large-scale unveiling ceremony was authorised by the council in 2020, an online Facebook group surfaced suggesting an “egg-throwing contest”, which saw interest from over 13,000 people.
Approximately 2,400 additional users visited the Facebook page to say they would attend the event, which was to include “egg throwing and potentially graffiti art”.
On Sunday, within just two hours of the statue’s unveiling, a man showed up at the installation with a carton of eggs and began hurling them at the monument from behind a temporary fence.
A CCTV camera had been installed directly opposite the memorial to attempt to deter any threats of vandalism. “We must never hide from our history and this memorial will be a talking point for generations to come,” said Kelham Cooke of the South Kestevan District Council.
Local officials have declared that they plan to hold a formal unveiling ceremony at an undisclosed date.
