Bullingdon is furious. The Germans have stolen a march on us yet again. Their museums have collaborated to stage a huge exhibition on the Enlightenment in China, and everyone who is anyone has been out to see it.
“Think of an idea that the English invented,” he stormed,” and get an exhibition out there PDQ.”
It seemed to me that our big idea is colonialism. We tried it out on Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and once we had perfected the model, we coloured the world pink.
Jeremy loved the concept. “Colonialism brought the railways to India and Christianity to Africa!” he shouted. “And without colonialism Britain would not be the multicultural society it is today.”
He leapt from his chair, and ran round the room, yelling: “Augustus, do you realise what you have done? By challenging conventional wisdom, you have defined the Conservative cultural agenda for our generation.
“The British Museum,” he said, “is as colonial as a slave’s shackles, but always pretends otherwise. You have had the courage to define the policy that dare not speak its name.”
The exhibition will have a trial run in the UK this autumn. It will then be the centrepiece of the UK Today festival in China in 2012, before travelling to all four corners of the world.
We have hired Erin Bonk and June Quid of Bonk for a Quid, to lead the press and PR campaign. They have assured me that our six-star champagne and limo PR trip to Beijing next year will be over-subscribed. But they think the British media won’t be interested in the launch of the UK tour in Basingstoke in September.
“Too far from London,” June explained.
“Think of an idea that the English invented,” he stormed,” and get an exhibition out there PDQ.”
It seemed to me that our big idea is colonialism. We tried it out on Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and once we had perfected the model, we coloured the world pink.
Jeremy loved the concept. “Colonialism brought the railways to India and Christianity to Africa!” he shouted. “And without colonialism Britain would not be the multicultural society it is today.”
He leapt from his chair, and ran round the room, yelling: “Augustus, do you realise what you have done? By challenging conventional wisdom, you have defined the Conservative cultural agenda for our generation.
“The British Museum,” he said, “is as colonial as a slave’s shackles, but always pretends otherwise. You have had the courage to define the policy that dare not speak its name.”
The exhibition will have a trial run in the UK this autumn. It will then be the centrepiece of the UK Today festival in China in 2012, before travelling to all four corners of the world.
We have hired Erin Bonk and June Quid of Bonk for a Quid, to lead the press and PR campaign. They have assured me that our six-star champagne and limo PR trip to Beijing next year will be over-subscribed. But they think the British media won’t be interested in the launch of the UK tour in Basingstoke in September.
“Too far from London,” June explained.
