It’s vanished! Did the council Gestapo remove it?

Almost exactly a year ago, to my huge delight, this Banksy mural appeared on the wall next to the Post Office depot at the end of Newman Street, where my office is.

Banksy’s stuff sells for as much as £250,000, it was a wonderful splash of colour – and I like the political comment. So what happened next? Some constipated arsehole from Westminster Council said it was defacing the building and should be removed.

I have no views on whether it’s a great work of art, but it has to be 1000 times better than a blank wall. And a blank wall is what it now is. It has vanished. Maybe it was removed by the creep in question. I’m sure this apparatchik – had he been alive at the time, if indeed he has ever been alive – would have taken one look at the Cistine Chapel and had the ceiling whitewashed.

Does anyone know his name? Such pustules on the body politic should be named and shamed.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

3 Comments

  1. Rezbi

    “if indeed he has ever been alive”

    Lol!

    I know who it was…

    Count Drrracula.

    Oh no, even he had a soul… once… so it can’t be him.

    Reply
  2. David Boothroyd

    I can tell you exactly who made the decision. It was decided at the Planning Applications sub-committee on 16 October 2008 and the minutes are here. The Banksy is item 14 on page 12. Councillors Robert Davis, Susie Burbridge and Tim Mitchell agreed.

    Modesty forbids me from mentioning the name of the lone brave dissenting councillor who wanted to allow the Banksy to be kept.

    Reply
  3. Rezbi

    @ David Boothroyd

    “Modesty forbids me from mentioning the name of the lone brave dissenting councillor who wanted to allow the Banksy to be kept.”

    Oh, go on, I’m sure you want to tell us.

    Reply
  4. Leslie Sprankling

    Ha! Has anyone ever known a politician of any sort to be modest? Truthful?

    Reply

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