Minister set to meet Gospels delegation
Jan 29 2008 by William Green, The Journal
NEW Culture Secretary Andy Burnham yesterday agreed to meet campaigners fighting to bring the Lindisfarne Gospels home to the North-East.
Mr Burnham said he would be happy to meet a delegation from the region after a request from Durham North MP Kevan Jones, who hit out at “cultural snobs” at the British Library, which holds the Gospels but has refused to return them to the region.
Mr Jones also praised The Journal’s campaigning over the Gospels, which revealed that the British Library dismissed the battle to bring the manuscripts home as “regionalism gone mad”. Internal emails between British Library officials released to The Journal revealed an antipathy to any long-term loan of the Gospels, despite widespread support to bring the fabled book back to the region.
Campaigners are hoping to mount a permanent display of the Gospels in the North-East, where they were created in the Eighth Century and remained until the mid-1500s before being seized and taken to London.
Mr Jones congratulated Mr Burnham on his appointment as Culture Secretary at his first departmental questions in the Commons yesterday before speaking out. The Durham North MP said record numbers of visitors came to see the Lindisfarne Gospels during their last visit to the region.
He added: “Would he agree to meet a delegation from the North-East who are campaigning for a return visit of the Gospels to the North-East, particularly in light of the expose in the Newcastle Journal of the concerted campaign by the metropolitan cultural snobs on the boards of the British Library who’ve been working hard to try and prevent them visiting the region again?”
Mr Burnham said: “I am grateful for that question, I’ll hesitate before I agree with him. That would be a sure way to the exit door in my new job were I to ask about that. But I would of course be happy to meet my honourable friend and a delegation from the North-East.”
The latest developments come after 38 MPs, including primary sponsor Mr Jones, signed a Commons motion criticising the British Library’s behaviour and accusing it of deploying “spurious” arguments for not allowing the return of the Gospels.
Gospel campaigner John Danby, from the Northumbria Association, said it was a step in the right direction. He said: “We are still hopeful of a permanent loan and there is a strong argument for this.”
To find out more about the campaign for the Gospels' return, click here
