Get over it! Richard is staying here
Monty Python fans will remember Graham Chapman's intervention in sketches which had spiralled hopelessly out of control. Appearing as an Army officer, he would declare the sketch "too silly" and bring it to an abrupt end.
Surely the time has arrived for a similar intervention in the increasingly tiresome campaign being run by politicians in York over the remains of King Richard III.
The latest broadside came in a debate which took place at Westminster Hall yesterday, where York MP Julian Sturdy reportedly argued that the decision in favour of Leicester appeared to have been "some kind of finders and keepers agreement" between the University of Leicester and the Government.
Together with another York MP, Hugh Bayley, he called for an independent committee to examine all the issues and advise ministers on where the king should be reinterred.
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This comes despite the fact that the authorities at York Minster have already rejected calls for Richard to be buried there and have commended him to Leicester's care – which does seem to be the end of the matter.
It should also be noted that the decision in favour of Leicester was not some sort of "finders and keepers" agreement at all but the outcome of the university following a perfectly normal procedure to complete an exhumation licence which gives it authority over the location of re-interment.
And the decision to choose Leicester Cathedral follows established archaeological practice to locate excavated remains as close as possible to the site where they were discovered.
Of course this benefits Leicester. But why on earth not?
The king has already been here for the past 500 years, so it seems a little late in the day to move him across the country now. And this area is historically important to this story because of the pivotal battle at nearby Bosworth.
Furthermore, his remarkable discovery was made not by a team from York desperate to find their lost king, but by archaeologists at the University of Leicester.
The time has surely come for the York campaigners to get over it and move on.
3 Comments
by roundthehorne
Thursday, March 14 2013, 1:01PM
“@wolfpaw1972
I think that I should have your house and all your possessions and you should live on the street. Presumably you disagree. Should we then commission an independent review to sort out this matter?
Comments on the York Press site indicate that the people of York are fed up with this whole embarrassing affair and want their MPs and Councillors to just give it a rest.”
by zygote3
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 4:44PM
“I find it funny that it winds you up so much. :)”
by wolfpaw1972
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 4:15PM
“If you think that the York campaign is being driven solely by York MPs then you're just showing your profound ignorance of the matter. The issue isn't based on Leicester vs. York but Leicester vs. the rest of England. I suspect that the majority of the people in the entire country, at least those with an interest, would support a reburial in York or Westminster Abbey.
If you're so certain of your position then why not support an independent review that would see the issue decided by a panel of unbiased medieval historians? I suspect you realise that the outcome would probably favour York or Westminster.”