BY KEER LONSDALE
While watching a heated debate on GB News about the future of the Elgin Marbles, full of narrow thinking on both sides, I found myself slipping into the soft embrace of sleep. And as I slept, a vision presented itself before me. A dream, so life-like and memorable, that it still makes my head reel to recall it.
In my dream a great press conference was called, but not in the usual surroundings. This one was in the ruins of the Parthenon itself, with glorious columns reaching up into a blazing vault of sky. The world’s press corps were assembled, expectant under the marble colonnades, tipped off that an announcement was about the be made on the future of the Elgin Marbles. The impasse, it was said, was about to be broken.
To a smattering of applause Rishi Sunak and Kyriakos Mitsotakis appeared. They mounted a podium, each positioned next to the flag of his respective country. And it was the Greek prime minister who spoke first:
“Long ago, the ancient Athenians created this wonder of the world. From its very inception, the Parthenon was something that inspired awe in all peoples. This was hardly surprising. The ancient Greeks, whose civilisation became the bedrock of modern Europe, were a special people. They gave us orators like Pericles, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, playwrights like Euripides and Sophocles, mathematicians like Archimedes and Pythagoras, warrior kings like Phillip II and Alexander the Great.
“These Greeks lived in great times, times marked by boldness, audacious self confidence and the growing spirit of a new idea: democracy. The things they created, the world they forged, was so astounding, so mind-bogglingly impressive, that the Romans themselves felt honoured to be its heirs. Those Romans mingled the spirit of ancient Greece with the Judaeo-Christian tradition and gave us the modern Western world.
Mr Mitsotakis’s eyes became misty with emotion. “Here, for centuries on end, stood the famous Parthenon Marbles. When Greece had fallen to her lowest ebb, overrun by Ottomans, the British rescued these Marbles and held them in safekeeping. Only the British could have done this. Only they, with the resources of their vast Empire and their wise and liberal outlook, could have seen these treasures for what they were. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of all civilised peoples, I thank them.
“And now, to announce some wonderful news to the world, I hand over to my good friend, Rishi …”
Rishi Sunak seemed to grow in stature at this introduction. Fixing the world’s press with a benign gaze, he said: “Thank you, Kyriakos! Greece and Britain have so much in common. The marvellous Greeks invented the culture of Europe and the West. The Romans nurtured it. And Britain, with her industrial revolution and her Empire, disseminated the questing, inventive, democratic spirit of the West across the Globe. So Britain and Greece are intimately linked in the genesis of our Western civilisation.”
Suddenly, Rishi’s expression grew pensive. “Now, that civilisation is facing threats as never before. So, today, as we Britons restore the Elgin Marbles, long kept in safety by us, to their creators the Greeks, we can announce a new partnership, a fellowship, an alliance which aims at nothing less than the revitalisation of the West itself. Our new confederation, the Parthenon Marbles Alliance, has simple, unequivocal aims: to defeat our enemies: the Chinese, the Russians, the Islamists, and the degenerate wokesters at home. It will be Greece and Britain who will lead the charge toward the resuscitation of our Western culture, as is only right. Yet already we can announce that other countries – the US, France, Australia – have indicated they are more than willing to join us.
“Our symbol will be these Marbles. If we falter, we will reach for them for inspiration. Once the cause of acrimony, they are now the seal of our friendship. These amazing sculptures have inspired us all. Out of disunity springs concord. The rebirth of the West begins today!”
I woke with a start. The debate on television was still droning on. But in my vision Rishi Sunak and his Greek counterpart Prime Minister Mitsotakis were transformed from dull technocrats to titans of statesmanship. And all it took to effect this transformation was a little dreaming.
Keer Lonsdale is a teacher, writer and countryman based in the north of England. He loves the rural life, fishing for trout and following a pack of hounds. As a small-‘c’ conservative, campaigning against the excesses of the intersectional Left and their divisive agendas takes up an ever-growing percentage of his time.