According to leftist opinions, the great English playwright is just as much a symbol of British colonialism and slavery as the British Queen Elizabeth I, whose image was also removed by Keir Starmer.
The portrait of William Shakespeare, incompatible with the woke ideology, was removed from the wall of the British Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street. While Keir Starmer is removing portraits of hundreds of years old writers, environmental activists have once again vandalized high-value images.
Compared to the fact that he is perhaps the best-known British stage author of all time, the fact that William Shakespeare's portrait was banished from the residence of the British Prime Minister did not cause much of an uproar.
According to left-wing opinions, Shakespeare is just as much a symbol of British colonialism and slavery as British Queen Elizabeth I, whose portrait Starmer also removed.
The new head of government actually decimated the pictures previously visible on the walls of the prime minister's residence, so the portraits of Sir Walter Raleigh (the British writer and explorer who lived in the 15th-16th centuries) and William Ewart Gladstone (the English liberal politician who lived in the 19th century) have also disappeared since he entered to house number 10.
He also "banished" Margaret Thatcher's effigy from the prime minister's office.
In the wake of the woke ideology, in the last period, on an ideological basis, "cleanings" are regularly carried out among the art objects of various institutions - especially paintings.
For example, this spring, as reported by several British organs, the portrait of an alumnus of the university, Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, was secretly removed from the patina institution at Oriel College of the University of Oxford, because the painting violates the woke ideology. (The news reported in the British press may be wrong in that Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort may in all probability be in the picture removed from the university.)
In the spirit of the far-left woke ideology, a Canadian university previously removed the paintings of several previous years from the walls of the university. The decision was justified by the fact that the boards of engineering students who graduated more than 25 years ago are mainly white men, and this is not inclusive enough.
In recent weeks in London, the legacy of the greats of European painting has been highlighted:
In September, it happened at the National Gallery in London, where three members of the environmental group Just Stop Oil, which fights against the use of fossil fuels, poured canned vegetable soup over two of Van Gogh's paintings.
It is not the first time that environmental groups close to the extreme left try to impose their particular ideology on the public by destroying well-known paintings.
Cover image: William Shakespeare
Source: Pixabay.com
