It is a truism in politics, as in life, that if you are in hole you should stop digging. However, the Leader of Northampton Borough Council, Cllr Mary Markham, is in full on JCB 360 tracked excavator mode as she is reported by the Museums Association as stating that the Internationally important statue of Sekhemka, sold by Northampton Council in 2014, was given the elbow because “…we didn’t have enough space to display the items that were relevant to Northampton our culture and our heritage – Sekhemka didn’t fit in that.” [ http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/28072015-uncertainty-over-how-northampton-museum-expansion-will-be-funded ]
If she carries on digging at this rate she will soon catch up with her predecessor as Leader, David Mackintosh MP, who was last seen, shovel swinging, rapidly heading for the antipodes. If you remember Mr Mackintosh recently demonstrated the value of inviting genuinely expert talking heads onto TV programmes by insisting on being the one true TV representative of all things Northampton and then utterly failing to identify an elephant boot for Ross Noble until he realised you had to read the museum label. Probably a label researched and written by one of the professional curatorial staff Northampton has sacked or not replaced.
Meanwhile museum loving, theatre enjoying, opera going, book reading, musical, cultured, creative and artistic members of the population of Northampton, [some of whom we hear are even interested in Egyptology and watch King Tut documentaries on the “History Channel” when Mr Mackintosh isn’t on “Dave”], might want to consider inviting Mrs Markham to a few events to broaden her cultural experience and knowledge of her electorate. thePipeLine suggests starting with the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum, or better still the Petrie Museum of Egyptology.
