FAREWELL, THEN, WINSTON CHURCHILL

A note on notes

I am in Spain at the moment. But as usual, I am thinking of England.

Specifically, I am thinking about English money. Because today various news outlets have reported that the Bank of England is planning a new series of banknotes to replace the money now in circulation.

The most eye-catching change will be to remove portraits of historical figures from the reverse of banknotes, replacing them with images of British wildlife.

So it is the beginning of the end for Winston Churchill (the face of the current fiver), Jane Austen (the tenner), JMW Turner (a score), and Alan Turing (the inconvenient fifty).

In their place will be - what?

Inevitably, to decide, there has been a public consultation, and a survey of [gasp] 44,000 people revealed that 60% of them wanted to see ‘nature’ on the notes.

The people - all twenty six and a half thousand of them - have spoken. And like my four year old son, their favourite thing is animals.

Vox populi, vox infantis.

Anyway, now there has been a public consultation there will be… another public consultation. To ask this:

What would the small number of Brits who fill in surveys on such things really love to see on our increasingly little-used banknotes? A stoat? A badger? One of those skanky pigeons from Trafalgar Square? Next door’s cat, which comes to your garden to make its toilet? The screeching, verminous, murderous fox?

It’s all up for grabs.

Now, it is worth noting that we have had animals on British banknotes before.

The first notes, issued in the eighteenth century, were printed on one side, and featured only a small image of Britannia in the top left hand corner. When banknotes went double-sided in 1917 the reverse of the £1 note featured a drawing of the Houses of Parliament.

But in the 1920s animals showed up.

First there was St George (not an animal), riding a horse (definitely an animal), slaying a dragon (arguably an animal).