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The Parthenon Marbles: a Biased Account?

Posted on 28/11/23 in Politics

There seemed to be an extraordinary sleight-of-hand in today’s coverage of Rishi Sunak’s decision not to meet his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. According to No.10, Mr Mitsotakis had agreed not to raise the issue of the return of the Parthenon Marbles or Elgin Marbles while on his UK visit, but he broke that agreement by discussing them with Laura Kuenssberg on TV, alongside public comments. This is surely sufficient reason for No.10 to pull out of the talks.

Yet Chris Mason presented them on the Today Programme as a kind of childish electioneering, down more to Mr Sunak’s desire to impress the reactionary right, and to a huff after Mr Mitsotakis also met with Sir Keir Starmer. The news report did give No.10’s point of view, while giving far more space to Mr Mason’s theories and the Greek reaction, but Mr Mason’s report itself failed to mention the official reason to call it off.

No doubt electioneering was involved in the decision – these are politicians after all. No doubt Sir Keir was also pleased, with his electioneering hat on, with the outcome. And the Greeks have politics too, so Mr Mitsotakis’ comments were presumably aimed at his own voters, not Britain’s. But the official reason, and the Greeks’ bad faith, were sufficient to call the meeting off, and it is extraordinary that they were barely mentioned.

This has nothing to do with the marbles themselves – my own view, not that anyone cares, is that they should be given back, as they are a running sore from which we benefit not at all. A loan, as Sir Keir seems to be advocating, would be the worst of all worlds, because the Greeks would never return them. Better hand them over and stop the fighting. But while we are arguing, let’s report the arguments accurately.