When English teachers are wondering what speaking and listening task to set their GCSE classes, one popular solution is the ‘plinth debate’.
This gets students discussing who or what should be displayed on the empty fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square in central London. Among the claims that David Beckham or the Queen Mother should be the worthy winners, I doubt that any 15-year-old ever suggested that a naked, pregnant, disabled woman should be displayed.
The three other plinths at the corners of the square display Empire-scale equestrian statues; two of 19th-century imperial generals and one of King George IV. The fourth was left empty since King William IV died without leaving enough funds to have his own statue erected and no one else seemed to want to use the space.
