'Brexit leaves Britain naked': Cambridge academic stages nude protest against outcome of EU referendum
Javier Espinoza, Education Editor
1 July 2016 • 4:18pm
A Cambridge academic walked in naked at a meeting at the Faculty of Economics in protest against the results of the EU referendum.
Victoria Bateman had written on her breasts and stomach ‘Brexit leaves Britain naked’.
The academic arrived at the faculty’s meeting last Wednesday where director of studies across all the university’s colleges as around 30 economists discussed teaching material and courses.
Ms Bateman, a lecturer has researched the development of the European economy, sat at the two-hour meeting without anyone mentioning her nudity they just went on with a normal meeting about tripos and marking.
Nigel Knight, director of studies at Churchill College and the chair of the meeting, glanced at her and then said to his secretary: “I think we need some cups for the coffee” and everyone else just stared straight ahead.
His remarks, however, are understood to have taken place before the meeting started.
Ms Bateman, who is an economics fellow at Gonville and Caius College, posed naked for a nude portrait of her by the painter Anthony Connolly last year.
A source who took part in the meeting told the Daily Telegraph: “It is well known to the faculty that she has posed naked but obviously the behaviour here was different. One thing is to pose naked and another to show up naked.
“This was a standard meeting about the teaching of economics and we moved away from her state of dress. We remained silent on that issue and managed to get through the agenda in the meeting.”
Asked if she was allowed to stay naked throughout the whole meeting, the source said: “Nobody was mistreated in any way.
Ms Bateman has been openly opposed to the UK leaving the EU. In an article for Bloomberg View earlier last month, she wrote: “The impact would be sizable.
"If the predicted fiscal deficit were to be corrected through welfare cuts alone, it would result in low-income households receiving between 1,861 pounds and 5,542 pounds less a year (in 2014 equivalent figures) by 2020, depending upon their personal circumstances.
“Even if the welfare budget were to bear only a quarter of the fiscal adjustment needed, it would still amount to a loss of some 1,146 pounds a year for a single working parent with one child.”
Ms Bateman has been contacted for comment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/07/01/naked-don-a-cambridge-academics-protest-against-brexit/
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