Pedos and Propaganda – the BBC…
A man put a ladder up by the controversial statue of Ariel and Prospero by pedophile Eric Gill, at the front of BBC headquarters. He climbed up and started hitting the statue with a hammer.
“There’s pedos and propaganda at the BBC so its two birds with one stone”
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Four and a half hours later he voluntarily came down on a hydraulic lift.
There appears remarkably little damage to the statue, in what mostly appears to be a symbolic defacing attack. More damage would have been caused with a chisel, and he could surely have not counted on being left for more than 4 hours. [20]
Eric Gill and his Art
Gill was thought of as something as a hero for his magnificent sculpting and other art including fonts. Mowever many people’s view changed radically after the publication of a book in 1989 by Fiona MacCarthy who had access to his diaries.
Eric Gill was unmasked for illegal and immoral sexual practices. An incestuous pedophile with his adult sisters, he also raped and anally raped his teenage daughters and had sexual relations with his dog, amongst other varied sexual unpleasantries described and perhaps best read here 2006 Other Moral ‘Pearls’ of Eric Gill [24]
Since the unmasking of Gill as a sexual deviant, there has been a light airing of ideas about how you treat art when created by a being that would have been locked up if his behaviour had been known at the time. Clearly that has not come to a satisfactory conclusion and the largely symbolic attack on Gill’s statue commissioned by the BBC is a reminder that it is time for the debate to deepen.
It is unlikely to have been a coincidence that this attack happened in the wake of the not guilty findings against the Colston 4 who played parts in the toppling of the statue of Bristol Cable Colston 4 found not guilty of criminal damage to slave trader’s statue [30]
It is clear that the establishment as well as the mainstream /legacy media has not discussed this verdict in any knowledgeable manner, preferring it seems, ignorant opinion and polemic. Of course that sells and is quick and easy to write.
For knowledge on the legal principles it may be best to read Secret Barrister Do the verdicts in the trial of the Colston 4 signal something wrong with our jury system?10 things you should know [35] and A Thought Experiment on Criminal Damage [28] .
However as we cannot know on what basis the jury found the defendants not guilty, much speculation on “loopholes” is misplaced.
Calls for removal of Gills Work
There have been calls for Gills works to be removed since at least 1998, and maybe earlier if it was easier to search pre internet /early internet times.
In 1998 Margaret Kennedy, a campaigner for Ministers and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors called for the removal of Gill’s Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral.
“He abused his maids, his prostitutes, animals, he was having sex with everything that moved – a very deranged man sexually.” [36]
The Catholic Church would not budge an inch. In 2007 Bishop George Stack, a former administrator of Westminster Cathedral, was quoted as saying “There was no consideration given to taking these down. A work of art stands in its own right. Once it has been created it takes on a life of its own.” [36]
Bishop Stack’s argument appears palpably false. The artwork almost never stands in its own right. It is almost never divorced from the creator. An artwork’s life is bound up with its creator. Provenance is integral to the work. It is quite bizarre and desperate that this argument is made. When there is no provenance, it is keenly sought after.
Gill’s biographer Macarthy was quoted as saying “Gill’s behaviour was obviously reprehensible. He was a child abuser and he did completely renege on his Catholic principles. But what do we do? Do we turn our eyes away from his wonderful works of art or do we, as I think we should, try to explore further and see how they were arrived at.” [36]
Kennedy said that a ban would be a “marker of his abuse, a tangible, public statement that we find what he has done horrendous”.
Public Recognition of Child Abuse
Widespread public recognition that child sexual abuse only occurred in Britain after the Jimmy Savile revelations, a year or so after his death on 29th Oct 2011.
After the Savile revelations the calls for the removal of Gill’s work intensified. Again this came from survivors groups…
Fay Maxted, chief executive of The Survivors’ Trust, which supports survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse said “It’s an insult to allow a work like this to remain in such a public place. ‘It is almost mocking survivors, it is intolerable.” [9]
The BBC spokesperson’s stance was “The statue of Ariel and Prospero on the front of Broadcasting House stands as a metaphor for broadcasting, executed by one of the last century’s major British artists whose work has been widely displayed in leading UK museums and galleries. There are no plans to remove or replace the sculptures at the front of Broadcasting House” [9]
Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association For People Abused In Childhood, NAPAC, said “There’s a strong argument that this should be removed. These symbols are in people’s faces. The statue was especially inappropriate in light of the recent Jimmy Savile scandal, he added. ‘But if you’ve been abused as a child then this is very insensitive and inappropriate.’ “ [9]
Savile was found to be a prolific paedophile on a scale rarely known before and unique for a public figure. Savile’s offending included boys, girls, men, women, hospital patients, necrophilia and ritual abuse. He also had been honoured by the Pope with the Order of St Gregory the Great, and the Queen with an OBE. People awarded OBE’s are vetted!
The implied but unstated or at least unreported inappropriateness of the BBC’s behaviour in light of the Jimmy Savile scandal, was that
The most prolific child abuser in public eye ever, Jimmy Savile was employed by the BBC, for 40+ years
Savile was indisputably “the face” of the BBC
Many people at the BBC were aware of Savile’s offending but nothing was done
The BBC, even after Savile’s death, covered up Savile’s child abuse. They ditched a BBC Newsnight programme supported by multiple victim testimony, which was only into a tiny part of his offending This delayed for a year exposure of much of Savile’s abuse before the dam broke [41]
BBC had many other child abuse scandals, some of which had come out.
The BBC were very much seen as an enabler of Jimmy Savile’s widespread child and sexual abuse, with much evidence. The BBC protected him as a child abuser.
BBC and Gill’s Artwork
In light of the Savile exposures, it appeared exceedingly inappropriate to keep a statue by a self admitted paedophile, in the most prominent position that it could be. It was displayed at the front of the BBC headquarters, BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London.
The BBC have more works by Gill – in addition to the statue Ariel and Prospero was statue The Sower, 3 friezes including ones called Ariel between Wisdom and Gaiety and Piping to the Children, as well as some abstract motif work.
Lord Reith
‘Reithian’ came to stand for a set of values at the Corporation that promoted moral responsibility and enlightenment. But the remarkable fact was that he spectacularly failed to implement those values in his own life. [43]
Lord Reith also features as the man who commissioned Gill to create the now controversial artwork.
Reith himself has also been exposed as having an unhealthy interest in children, yet this has received little publicity.
Sydney Robinson writes in 2014…
Part of the difficulty lay in Reith’s tortured sexuality. Throughout much of his early life, he appears to have been drawn to adolescent boys and even, in one case, to a young girl. If he had been around today, he could well have been helping child protection officers with their inquiries.
His first intense crush arose at the age of 22, when he fell in love with a neighbour in Glasgow called Charlie Bowser, who was eight years his junior. Soon the man and boy were going on holiday together, sharing beds and hot baths. Bowser even took to kissing Reith in public. Inwardly, Reith regretted his passion, but could not help it. ‘I am frightfully fond of him. It is, of course, quite ridiculous,’ he wrote.”
“But there were other dubious infatuations, such as with Betty Stewart, the sister of a male acquaintance. ‘She really is like a fairy princess,’ he wrote. At the time of that effusion, Betty was not yet 13. “
from 2014 Mail Dark side of the man who built the Beeb: Lord Reith was the Titan behind the BBC’s high-minded values. But a book reveals he was an eccentric monster who came to loathe TV and had troubling infatuations with children [43]
The ages differ slightly in a book from Reith’s daughter but the story is confirmed…
When he was 23, he formed a homosexual attachment to a 16-year-old boy, Charlie Bowser (“very good-looking, with awfully pretty eyes”. Charlie became friendly with a shy girl called Muriel Odhams and there was a strange triangular relationship between them before John Reith finally poached Muriel for himself. “In some crazy way,” says Marista, “he thought if he was married to her, it would regularise what he had with Charlie.” [46]
The Head of the BBC Lord Reith, had an unhealthy interest in adolescents, and commissioned a statue of a man and naked boy from an incestuous paedophile, Eric Gill.
BBC Response to Savile Exposure
This statement from the BBC after the Savile exposure was insulting…
In 2013 a BBC spokesperson said: ‘The statue of Ariel and Prospero on the front of Broadcasting House stands as a metaphor for broadcasting, executed by one of the last century’s major British artists whose work has been widely displayed in leading UK museums and galleries.’There are no plans to remove or replace the sculptures at the front of Broadcasting House.’ [9]
The BBC was intransigent and unmoved. Even after the exposure of Savile’s abuse and their part in his ability to abuse and his actual abuse, the BBC chose not to even address the issues brought up by the statue and by survivors.
It was as though they didnt care about Savile being a paedophile, about Eric Gill being a paedophile, the BBC would do what it wanted…
There was no acceptance of any of the issues. The issues were not even mentioned. Having the art of a incestuous child rapist over your front door… Its almost as though the BBC were proud of having an incestuous child rapists artwork in the most prominent place on their headquarters…
The impression given was that any issues were trumped by the fact the artist is great, others display art by him and a naked little boy is supposed to be a metaphor for brodcasting, so we are going to leave the statue there… End of conversation.
Why was there no deep soul searching by the BBC into the statue, issues, the individual and the artwork… ?
This blog post by 5ocietyx from the time The Tempest: Prospero, Ariel, Gill and the BBC…and Anonymous [13] offers the following opinions, far better than I could, but I have slightly adapted.
“Despite everything that has happened since the BBC’s number one asset, Jimmy Savile, was exposed as Britain’s most notorious paedophile the corporation remains unrepentant of its use of child abusers to host children’s television programmes and its use of paedophiles to decorate its flagship building.
“Whilst Television Centre appears to be a paedophile’s playground, an incestuous, child abusing, bestiality practitioner was commissioned to decorate Broadcasting House. Savile must have walked through those doors and thought to himself ‘I’ve arrived’.
“According to the BBC, a naked boy submissively leaning into the raised leg of a wizard is simply a metaphor for broadcasting. According to the BBC, Eric Gill was a major British artist rather than an incestuous bestiality practitioner. He was both, of course, but the BBC ‘spokesperson’ completely ignores the background context of the artist despite the ‘inappropriateness’ to use a word the BBC are fond of.
“If the Ariel and Prospero statue is about broadcasting, what are we to make of ‘Ariel piping to the children’ another Gill creation adorning the inside of Broadcasting House which features a naked pied piper playing his phallus-pipe in a sea of children? It would appear that this piece of work also represents broadcasting.
“Like the wizard standing over the en-trance brandishing his little sex-slave like a trophy, we also see Savile in, not only the pied piper which represents Pan, but The Sower character too which represents Saturn. Perhaps the BBC can convince us otherwise?
“Was the art of a paedophile that happens to feature the pied piper and a wizard as well as naked children in suggestive poses not at all influenced by the artist’s personal preferences and the culture of the corporation as a whole?
“The BBC approved Gill at the time and hold the same policy now. They obviously share his tastes, otherwise why would they have commissioned him? “
5ocietyx The Tempest: Prospero, Ariel, Gill and the BBC…and Anonymous [13]
The Head of the BBC Lord Reith, had an unhealthy interest in adolescents, and commissioned a statue from a self admitted incestuous pedophile Eric Gill, of a statue of a man and naked boy. That man is a wizard and the naked boy his slave and they practise magik.
This is getting a bit sinister and suspicious. Savile did magik…
Is there a reason why a magician’s statue was placed in that spot?
Broadcasting House was a purpose built building with a central heavy masonry tower, built from Portland Stone. Stone is known to resonate well. Three floors were below ground, it was right next to John Nash’s All Souls’ Church, One broadcast aerial was right above the en-trance and the magician.
I wonder how they chose the broadcast frequencies for their programming. I wonder if it is positioned on a nexus of the earths magnetic grid? Why has the magician got a large sphere of stone at his feet?
BBC Broadcasting House The first purpose-built broadcast centre in the UK [71]
The post is very long with many photos so I cannot transfer it all here, it is best viewed on [111] 2022 Jan 17 cathyfoxblog Pedos and Propaganda - the BBC... https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/pedos-and-propaganda-the-bbc/