The Bank of England has announced plans to revamp the design of its banknotes. Gone are Winston Churchill and Jane Austen, replaced by badgers and squirrels: the aim is to showcase Britain’s wildlife.
This trend is not new. We get the banknotes we deserve, and the British are not the only ones to be moving away from statesmen and women of letters.
When I was a child, I dreamed of the day when I would finally be old enough to slip impressive banknotes adorned with the great glories of the French nation into my little leather purse: Pascal lived on the 500-franc note and conversed in good company with Montesquieu and his 200 francs, under the gaze of Delacroix and his Liberty Leading the People, which adorned the 100-franc notes at the time. These honourable figures were impressive. Confusingly, at a time when I was collecting pennies to buy strawberry lollipops, I sensed that something serious and venerable was at stake.
Then the notes were ‘modernised.’ They dressed in garish colours that made them look like Monopoly money. With some concern, I saw Montesquieu, Pascal and Delacroix disappear, replaced by Saint-Exupéry and Cézanne—honourable figures, certainly, but of a slightly less noble calibre. The 200-franc note was to honour the Lumière brothers, inventors of cinema—but they were deemed politically incorrect, as they were suspected of having sympathised with the Vichy regime, and the stock of notes already printed was eventually destroyed after one of those controversies that the Left has a knack for. They had to give way to Gustave Eiffel, the builder of the eponymous tower.
Then came the euro: the designers of the single currency solved the problem by choosing abstract and non-existent visuals, roads leading nowhere and windows opening onto emptiness, reflecting the political project in Brussels. I found myself regretting, of course, Eiffel and Cézanne. And I consoled myself by going to England: there, at least, they still knew what a sovereign currency was and how to glorify the noble figures of the past.
The latest series issued by the Bank of England paid tribute to Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, William Turner, and Alan Turing—an interesting selection combining literature and politics, art and technology. Some certainly felt that one woman for every three men was hardly gender-balanced, but at least the brave Jane Austen had the merit of being there. Those happy days are well and truly over.
The choice of new British banknotes is just one manifestation of the deconstruction that we are witnessing, powerless, every day before our very eyes.
A survey was conducted among a panel of 44,000 participants: 60% of them preferred banknotes featuring “animals and birds” rather than landscapes or architectural elements (56%) or historical figures (only 36%).
Behind this vote, there may be many reasons for Jane and Winston’s dismissal: no one reads War Memoirs or Mansfield Park anymore; depicting human faces is not done in certain newly arrived communities that are intended to enrich the common culture; the need to cultivate ecological awareness of biodiversity in the era of nuclear war must take precedence over all other considerations—there is certainly no shortage of explanatory hypotheses. We could add that it’s been some time since this old white male colonialist of Churchill has been labelled unwanted.
In any case, we are assured that it is—necessarily—for a good cause. Experts assure us that attempting to reproduce animals and birds will make the task of forgers more difficult. One wonders why an old owl would be more difficult to imitate than Jane Austen’s head—may she forgive me for this lack of respect. We are also told that the choice will be participatory: the Bank of England will draw up a list of selected animals, from which British citizens will be invited to choose.
“Introducing a new banknote series provides an opportunity to celebrate different aspects of the UK,” explains the bank’s chief cashier Victoria Cleland.
But the most ironic thing is that those who are currently working on the new designs for British currency and are all proud of their idea—to showcase the wildlife of the British Isles—are undoubtedly programmed by the same administrative software as those who, at the same time, in the office next door, are striving to destroy everything that is the essence of English rural life—from banning hunting to taxing family-owned rural properties.
Will there now be hedgehogs and badgers on banknotes? Big deal, if the English countryside where they once thrived has been turned into an annexe of a migrant camp.
In Bulgaria, people are resisting by asking God, on newly minted euro coins, to watch over the country. England could use a similar helping hand.
Farewell, Winston; Welcome Badger: The Tale of the New British Banknotes
form on pxhere.com
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The Bank of England has announced plans to revamp the design of its banknotes. Gone are Winston Churchill and Jane Austen, replaced by badgers and squirrels: the aim is to showcase Britain’s wildlife.
This trend is not new. We get the banknotes we deserve, and the British are not the only ones to be moving away from statesmen and women of letters.
When I was a child, I dreamed of the day when I would finally be old enough to slip impressive banknotes adorned with the great glories of the French nation into my little leather purse: Pascal lived on the 500-franc note and conversed in good company with Montesquieu and his 200 francs, under the gaze of Delacroix and his Liberty Leading the People, which adorned the 100-franc notes at the time. These honourable figures were impressive. Confusingly, at a time when I was collecting pennies to buy strawberry lollipops, I sensed that something serious and venerable was at stake.
Then the notes were ‘modernised.’ They dressed in garish colours that made them look like Monopoly money. With some concern, I saw Montesquieu, Pascal and Delacroix disappear, replaced by Saint-Exupéry and Cézanne—honourable figures, certainly, but of a slightly less noble calibre. The 200-franc note was to honour the Lumière brothers, inventors of cinema—but they were deemed politically incorrect, as they were suspected of having sympathised with the Vichy regime, and the stock of notes already printed was eventually destroyed after one of those controversies that the Left has a knack for. They had to give way to Gustave Eiffel, the builder of the eponymous tower.
Then came the euro: the designers of the single currency solved the problem by choosing abstract and non-existent visuals, roads leading nowhere and windows opening onto emptiness, reflecting the political project in Brussels. I found myself regretting, of course, Eiffel and Cézanne. And I consoled myself by going to England: there, at least, they still knew what a sovereign currency was and how to glorify the noble figures of the past.
The latest series issued by the Bank of England paid tribute to Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, William Turner, and Alan Turing—an interesting selection combining literature and politics, art and technology. Some certainly felt that one woman for every three men was hardly gender-balanced, but at least the brave Jane Austen had the merit of being there. Those happy days are well and truly over.
The choice of new British banknotes is just one manifestation of the deconstruction that we are witnessing, powerless, every day before our very eyes.
A survey was conducted among a panel of 44,000 participants: 60% of them preferred banknotes featuring “animals and birds” rather than landscapes or architectural elements (56%) or historical figures (only 36%).
Behind this vote, there may be many reasons for Jane and Winston’s dismissal: no one reads War Memoirs or Mansfield Park anymore; depicting human faces is not done in certain newly arrived communities that are intended to enrich the common culture; the need to cultivate ecological awareness of biodiversity in the era of nuclear war must take precedence over all other considerations—there is certainly no shortage of explanatory hypotheses. We could add that it’s been some time since this old white male colonialist of Churchill has been labelled unwanted.
In any case, we are assured that it is—necessarily—for a good cause. Experts assure us that attempting to reproduce animals and birds will make the task of forgers more difficult. One wonders why an old owl would be more difficult to imitate than Jane Austen’s head—may she forgive me for this lack of respect. We are also told that the choice will be participatory: the Bank of England will draw up a list of selected animals, from which British citizens will be invited to choose.
“Introducing a new banknote series provides an opportunity to celebrate different aspects of the UK,” explains the bank’s chief cashier Victoria Cleland.
But the most ironic thing is that those who are currently working on the new designs for British currency and are all proud of their idea—to showcase the wildlife of the British Isles—are undoubtedly programmed by the same administrative software as those who, at the same time, in the office next door, are striving to destroy everything that is the essence of English rural life—from banning hunting to taxing family-owned rural properties.
Will there now be hedgehogs and badgers on banknotes? Big deal, if the English countryside where they once thrived has been turned into an annexe of a migrant camp.
In Bulgaria, people are resisting by asking God, on newly minted euro coins, to watch over the country. England could use a similar helping hand.
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