Speaker's wife Sally Bercow has insulted the memory of this country's greatest historical figures by branding English Heritage's blue plaque scheme as including: "Obscure bit-part players who lived hundreds of years ago."
Speaking on ITV about her wish to see a Parliament Square memorial to late anti-war protestor Brian Haw, 62, she said: "I think it is important there is a tribute to Brian.
"He was there for ten years despite the best efforts of the stuffy establishment to boot him out. I think there should be a memorial or a stone or something.
"You have blue plaques all over London for all sorts of bit-part players who lived hundreds of years ago," added Sally, wife of the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow.
A spokesperson for English heritage, which manages the scheme founded in 1866 and the oldest of its kind in the world said: "We don't want to get into a slanging match with Sally Bercow, she is entitled to her opinion, but obviously we do not agree with it."
The first blue plaque was unveiled in 1867 by the Royal Society of Arts, who launched the scheme, to mark the birthplace of Lord Byron in Holles Street, near Cavendish Square.
There are now 850 blue plaques marking notable buildings connected to inventors, composers, industrialists, politicians, war heroes, artists, writers, scientists, architects, explorers and other significant individuals.
Included are Sir Winston Churchill, two-time PM between 1940-45 and 1951-55, the only Prime Minister to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature and the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the USA.
His plaque is sited at 28 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington Gore.
Naturalist Charles Darwin, author of On The Origin of Species, has a blue plaque at the Biological Sciences Building, University College, Gower Street.
Author Charles Dickens is celebrated at a former home in Tavistock Square and physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton who developed the theory of gravity and the three laws of motion is commemorated at 87 Jermyn Street.
The English Heritage spokesperson explained: "The intrinsic aim of the English Heritage Blue Plaque scheme is to mark and celebrate the link between people and the buildings in which they lived and worked.
"The scheme also requires individuals to have been dead for 20 years (or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier).
"There also needs to be a surviving residence.
"This is not to say that Brian Haw should not be commemorated in some way, and we understand why there would be enthusiasm to do so."
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