In March 2006 a 9ft statue of Winston Churchill in a straightjacket was unveiled in Norwich England during a weekend conference highlighting the stigma associated with depression and other mental illnesses. The artist commissioned to create the fiberglass sculpture said that he meant to insult no one. Still, from members of Parliament to scores of letters from the public, the outcry was unprecedented. A common refrain was that it was an insult to such a great man. One loan voice in a BBC article was a professor who himself suffered from bipolar depression most of his life, "It speaks volumes for those of us who have spent most of their lives in the straitjacket of mental illness and yet have achieved against all the odds in a society that currently is prejudiced, ignorant and sometimes fearful of my condition."
In the The Telegraph, Churchill's Grandson said, "It's not only insulting, it's pathetic...This is probably a good cause in search of publicity and they have let some idiot ruin their case." The statue was removed in response to public sentiment. But the story is far more relevant than one retired statue.
