Angle of the North

This idea won't mean anything unless you know the Angel Of the North is. In case you can't be bothered looking it up, it's a very large piece of public art sculpture, created by the respected artist Anthony Gormley, that sits poised on a hill near Gateshead in the North of England. It takes the form of a large standing figure with long outstretched wings, which are parallel to the ground, and it's all made out of heavy steel. It weighs 200 tons. In fact it's the largest piece of public sculpture in the UK, but it doesn't do much except stand around and have people looking at it "saying wow it's so big". With a little bit of work they could be saying " wow it's so big - and look - it's moving!"

What I would like to do with the Angel of the North is to convert it to the Angle of the North. This would involve motorising the two outstretched wings so that they could very slowly reposition themselves to a different angle of inclination on a continuous basis. The North of England has a strong engineering tradition, so the work would be relatively simple. Sponsoring an "Angle of the Day" would cover the cost of the modification, with "Today's Angle" becoming part of the weather forecast

In future, when folk on current affairs programmes say: "Let's hear the northern angle on that one" - the sound of groaning gears will be played accompanied by a picture of the slowly moving wings.