The Fourth Plinth is what public art should be

WELL, you can have a sweet potato, an ice cream van, an equestrian figure draped in green slime or a black cat.

- Melanie McDonagh

Seven models for the vacancies on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2026 and 2028 are on display in the National Gallery, and you can vote for which lucky sculpture gets two years on the most prominent public space in England. But it’s a band of the elite that gets to choose the shortlist, and the only name on the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group I actually recognised is that of Jon Snow, the newsreader.