The National Gallery

Mary Richardson was a Canadian Suffragette known for her friendship with Emily Davidson as well as her famous actions at the National Gallery. Enraged with the lack of government action for the women's suffrage, Richardson took to the famous Velasquez painting with an axe that she used to slash the artwork seven times. She was very dedicated to the cause and was willing to go to jail for her actions. Richardson particularly despised the 'Rokeby Venus' masterpiece by Velasquez with its very nude depiction of feminine beauty. 

This painting now holds a new significance as it represents the struggles and lengths many women were willing to go through for the feminist movement. Without these many dedicated individuals, there may not have been such great coverage and attention brought to the cause and perhaps the movement would not have been as great or significant.

During our visit to the National Gallery we found many pictures depicting different stories and a couple of painting stood out to us as we believed such paintings would surely be loved by feminists to destroy.

The History Behind Downing Street

Sir George Downing

George Downing was the creator behind Downing Street. He gained a royal pardon in March 1660 and in May 1660 rewarded with a knighthood. George was more interested in the property on Downing Street that belonged to Knyvet’s inheritors. Knyet was one of Queen Elizabeth 1 favourite MP and was also knighted in 1604.The property had stayed in their family, until 1682 when George Downing had gained the lease to the property.

During 1682 to 1684, approximately 20 bad looking terraced houses were built along the new street, Downing Street. Also, the houses along Downing Street were usually identified by the name. The numbering of the houses had changed drastically since 1700s.  For example, house number 10 was previously five.

House number 10 had many different residents such as Countess of Yarmouth (1688-1689), Lord Lansdown (1692-1696), Earl of Grantham and Mr Chicken (1730s).

Sir Robert Walpole

Later on, the house on Downing Street and the house that overseas horse guards were given to Sir Robert Walpole, First Lord of Treasury or Prime Minister and Prime Minister, by King George 2.  Walpole made the Downing Street house become residence for him and future First Lords of Treasury. This is seen on the letterbox on the front door, which is still engraved with the title. Later on, Walpole had hired an architect, William Kent to refurbish the two houses.

Downing Street had an intense journey where many times it was at crisis. For example, by 1950s 10 Downing Street had worsened by bomb damages. There were mainly structural problems such as sloping walls. In 1991 a terrorist’s bomb exploded in the garden of number 10, which was only a few metres away from the Prime Minister at the time, John Major. 

Downing Street went through a lot of damage and was very unstable throughout years. However, the significant change was done by Tony Blair in 2006 who put forward a new programme to improve the buildings on Downing street.  by starting this programme they had discovered 11 downing street was actually dangerous because of its instability and to secure it, it needed 225 stainless steel pins.

At this moment, there is still programmes which are carried out to make sure downing street is stable, secure and modernised. for example, there has been a great improvement in the disability facilities,  to allow downing street to be accessible for anyone with disabilities.  However, their main aim now, is to modernise their facilities but keep its history.

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is the largest square in London and has historical value.

Trafalgar used to be a courtyard of rows of houses that were converted from stables. the typical design would be rooms above, built round a yard or alley.  This used to serve the Whitehall palace. It used to be called Charing but later was changed to Charing Cross which is still seen today as an underground tube is named after this. During the 1800s, it has had undergone many changes and by 1830 it was officially named Trafalgar Square.

Furthermore an architect, Sir Charles Barry designed Trafalgar Square to link with the National Gallery  between 1840 to 1845.  The National Gallery was linked by staircases which included statues and two fountains. by 1867 everything was built including the bronze lions which is placed at the base of Nelson's columns.

The site of Trafalgar square had become a place where demonstration and rallies were held on political,religious or general issues. It is also a great public space which allows multicultural events to take place.

 Significant Moments in Trafalgar Square 

• May 2007, there was a campaign by London locals to promote 'green space', so the square was grassed over with 2,000 square metres for two days
• July 200,7 a parade was held to celebrate the 60th independence anniversary of Pakistan from Britain. 
• Eid Festival on July 2016.
• The fountains being died red in protest against cuts made to domestic violence services, by the feminist group Sisters Uncut in November 2015. Read the article here.

Visiting Churchill's Statue and Plaque

Born on 30th November 1874, Winston Churchill grew up to become on of the most significant political figures who led the country through WW2. Despite being brought up in an aristocratic family Churchill never found his feet within the education system- he despised it. Instead he joined many different organisations, one being the Freemasons.

( From top to bottom) Churchill's Plaque and Freemasons Hall- visited on June 14th.

After deciding that continuing with his at Harrow wasn't suited for him he decided to join the Harrow Riffle Corps, which in fact led to his career into the military. After a couple of years in the army where he was honoured to serve in the Indian northwest frontier and in Sudan, Churchill decided to quit leading to the start of his blossoming career in politics. He became a member of the Conservative Party in Oldham in 1900 but quickly became an advocate for social justice and often went against many Conservative views. This ultimately led to his choice to move parties to the Liberals in 1904.

'To think you can make a man richer by putting on a tax is like a man thinking he can stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle'

For the next years Churchill would embrace his new position as a member of the cabinet and even became the President of Board of Trade and worked with David Lloyd George, the chancellor at the time and soon to be PM (1919-1922). However the years from 1922-1929 where tough ones for Churchill as he re-joined the Conservative party after the Liberals were defeated suggesting that he had 're-ratted' back to the party. Subsequently this led to many viewing him as a traitor and right wing extremist. Despite all of this Churchill was seen to redeem himself throughout one of the toughest years Britain had to face as a country, 1939-1945. He was critical of the PM at the time; Neville Chamberlain who was following a policy known as appeasement (essentially giving Germany what they wanted to stop Hitler from going to war)

3rd September 1939 one of the most symbolic dates in history, Britain declared war on Germany. Churchill was delegated a seat in the War Cabinet and became the first lord of Admiralty. He'd attempt to advise Chamberlain on how to deal with German threats but they were ignored which left the country loosing confidience with there PM. Churchill was appointed Prime minister on May 10th 1940. The next five years Churchill would put in 'blood..toil..tears and sweat..' into ensuring that Britain would triumph and win the war. And on May 7th 1945 Germany surrendered.

Churchill at his victory parade- showing the
Peace sign to signify triumph.

Visiting the statue of Churchill which is situated in Parliament Square resembles the significance of the political figure. Not only is it the biggest statue there, placed at the entrance to the square it is in a spot that Churchill described himself as 'where my statue will go'. The statue overlooks Parliament which show his political importance towards the building. 

The statue resembles the ideology of Nationalism well as it illustrates the belief that the nation is the most important aspect in society. This is because during the war the welfare of the nation and keeping Britain standing was the only thing on Churchill's mind. Churchill has become a powerful symbol for what Britain stands for therefore in itself Churchill represents the idea of Nationalism pretty well.

Picture with Churchill in Parliament Square.

'Success is the ability from going from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm'

Theresa May as our Prime Minister!

May? No Way?

After the devastation of the EU referendum results, we sadly saw our Prime Minister David Cameron resign – this meant that the role for Prime Minister was up for grabs!

It was seen to be a bitter fight between Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, both ‘Leave’ campaigners as Gove eventually ‘knifed’ Johnson on his potential to be the next national leader. Whilst all the drama was occurring, Theresa May, Home Secretary at the time, was somewhat confident at gaining that position but was not very vocal. She was seen as a popular candidate as she had wide range support from the majority of the Conservative Party and Cameron himself.

After both Johnson and finally Gove stepped down in the leadership race, all who was left was Andrea Leadsom, Minister of State for Energy.

What a proud moment for Britain as we have two female candidates waiting for the role of Prime Minster! As feminists ourselves, we thought this moment was truly inspiring for young girls and women showing us how nothing is impossible for women and if we strive and show passion in what we do, nothing and no one can turn us down. A female Prime Minister was inevitable! (Well obviously)

(left to right) Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May

On the 11^th of July, the race to be Prime Minister was cut short for Theresa May as Leadsom stood down after it was deemed by many that she didn’t have the right experience and take on the leadership role and he CV was also questioned. This left May who is now the second female Prime Minister of Britain, she was left ‘honoured and humbled’.

From the results of Brexit, May promises to make Britain great again and make a ‘success’ out of Brexit. Hopefully with the country in her hands we can soon see some positivity from the referendum results for the country.

Theresa May entering 10 Downing Street

With May now being Prime Minister, others have another question on their mind: will we see another Thatcher?

“Together we will build a better Britain” Theresa May – Prime Minister

EU Public Speaking Competition

Tamana and Amreen WON the Public Speaking Competition on the debate about the UK’s membership with the EU!

Two members of our group, Tamana and Amreen took part in a Public speaking competition. They both debated on the popular topic on the UK membership with the EU. Throughout this debate both delivered compelling arguments on reasons for and against staying within the EU.  Tamana spoke about why leaving the EU would benefit the UK, such as UK law; the EU would not restrict law-making processes. On the other hand, Amreen argued against Tamana and stated the greater benefits UK would have if they kept their membership with the EU. Looking at the most important arguments, both concluded that staying in the EU is more beneficial to the UK than leaving.

The Referendum: Should Britain remain in the EU?

 A Referendum is a form of direct democracy where the people themselves make key decisions on a single issue. We have just had a referendum on whether we should leave or remain in the European Union. After a long day the results came in that Britain would be leaving the European Union. With Nigel Farage ecstatic and Boris Johnson gleaming later that day David Cameron also announced that he would be resigning to leave his post in October 2016. Not long after the race for Conservative party leader and Prime Minister would begin. Boris Johnson and Theresa May were favored to win, until Boris Johnson suddenly announced he would not be running for the leadership position. The Main competitors now seem to be Michael Gove and Theresa May.

Are we witnessing the collapse of Parliament?

With the next Conservative party leader elections fierce and the position of Prime Minister up for grabs, we also see Jeremy Corbyn getting a lot of backlash for the lack of active campaigning or 'effective' campaigning from the Labour Party. We have also seen a lot of shadow cabinet resignations, including that of Hilarie Benn who expressed their opinions on Corbyn's leadership holding a no confidence on his role. Although there has been a public petition on the government website supporting Corbyn's leadership. Also with allegations that the campaigning mainly on the leave side was misleading and lacked accurate information has led to a public petition asking for a second referendum. The petition has so far reached over a million signatures and has managed to crash the gov website.

The pack of lies we were told!

After critisims towards the campaigning of UKIP, due to the false promises and the implying that £350million would go to the NHS upon departure of the EU It seems many people are beginning to regret their decision to vote Brexit and everyone is now focusing on what will happen next with Parliament, that is if it does manage not to collapse.

Britain and the EU

Britain's relationship with the European Union is often debated about whether it is positive or negative, so was Brexit a wise decision?

So what did Britain's existing relationship with the EU actually mean? First we need to know what the EU is and why Britain is part of it. The EU is like an exclusive club as they will not accept just anyone to join. There are requirements a country must first meet before it can be allowed to join, for example the country must have a strong and stable government. Being part of the EU also means a country must follow EU law which supersedes any laws of the country. So in Britain, Parliamentary law can be overridden by EU law. British courts have the job of identifying any laws that may be incompatible with EU law and then must make a declaration of incompatibility for the law.

So how can Britain benefit from EU membership?
The EU was established in order to reduce wars and ensure that countries can trade together easily. Countries in the EU can freely trade with each other ensuring they will always have trading partners. Therefore that means they will be gaining money from exports as well as recieving imports as part of the EU. However many may argue the EU is not all that profitable as there is a hefty membership fee of £350 million.

This argument can be countered as the UK has the benefits of having free trade which allows them to export and import goods. The UK can gain more than they spend on their membership fee in the long term through free trade in the EU. Europe is also known as one of the largest trading markets and leaving the EU will cause a huge loss for the UK

Furthermore, leaving the EU has destroyed a sense of community for the UK. When the UK was apart of the EU, they were apart of a greater and better community. Now that they have left, it ruins the unity, alliances and direct connection they had with other countries such as France. This could also mean the UK is not as safe as it once was.When it was apart of the EU it had the support from many countries and now it does not. There is a possibility that the UK's protection has weakened from leaving the EU.