Here is the big blue… BIRD

Today the Mayor of London unveiled another cultural Cock: the latest statue to sit on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. It is a bright blue cockerel, but its name is most definitely Cock, and the German artist who created it, Katharina Fritsch, has made it clear that she fully intends the double entendre. How would the Mayor, king of the gaffe, dodge the pitfalls this beast presented in his speech in its honour? Brilliantly, by never once mentioning the word, but with every sentence apparently teetering on the brink of doing so. None more so than in his final introduction: “Feast your eyes on this beautiful new Fourth Plinth sculpture. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the big blue… BIRD.”