My walk from the Tube to my desk every morning takes me through Trafalgar Square, past the infamous “fourth plinth”. This morning the covers had been removed from the latest piece of art to grace the empty space (after a brief visit from a waxwork of Jonny Wilkinson). I stopped to have a good look but I can’t say I’m a fan of Thomas Schütte’s Model for a Hotel 2007.

I’m all for art - I was once in the unusual position of trying to decide between starting a degree in engineering and going to art college. Early 20th Century paintings, influenced by Japanese woodcuts and the then-new art of photography, are my kind of thing. I’m interested in architecture too - everything from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water to the ecological benefits of middle-eastern courtyard townhouses. But I’m left completely unmoved by the new occupant of the plinth. Maybe if the assemblage of coloured glass planes had been unveiled in the spring I’d have felt differently, but on a grey November day, in the grey surroundings of the square, its boiled-sweet colours looked garish, childish and out of place.

I know it’s not fashionable these days to think it, but Trafalgar Square was built to commemorate military matters - which is why the three other plinths are occupied by bronzes of top brass, and the big column in the middle is topped off with a sailor. Even the lions are made of melted-down captured cannons. Sculptures that celebrate London’s diversity or play with colour and light are fine, but surely this is the wrong pedestal to put them on.

My vote would be for sculptures that encourage the viewer to think differently about war - to underscore the modern sensibility that there is no glory in combat, but that it’s still important to remember why our local government is free to erect an ugly pile of junk, rather than a figure of a dictator.

So I’d suggest a statue of Alan Turing. Not only was he instrumental in winning World War II, he was also gay. His image would be in keeping with the place but would also remind us that it takes a lot more than stiff-upper-lipped generals to safeguard the peace.