The Bank of England spent more than £85,000 figuring out how to scrub historical figures such as Sir Winston Churchill from our banknotes. The Telegraph has the story:
The Telegraph revealed in June that the central bank had dropped key figures in British history such as Churchill, Alan Turing and Jane Austen from the banknotes after being told they were “elitist and divisive”.
Research commissioned by the Bank recommended that they should be replaced with images of wildlife on a new series of banknotes.
Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request show the Bank spent £63,000 to justify the selection of nature as a replacement theme.
This included £49,000 paid to Savanta, a market research consultancy firm, to run focus groups about a move away from historical figures.
A further £22,500 was then spent on public consultations about which animals Britons wanted to see featured on the banknotes. …
Savanta’s report recommended moving away from these figures, arguing that they represented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy”.
The research stated that “younger generations and future generations” would reject “potentially contentious or controversial histories of landmarks and historical figures”.
In the response to the FOI request, the Bank said: “Savanta was selected following a competitive evaluation process in which research companies that applied were assessed against a range of criteria, including value for money.” …
It did not record the time staff spent on the project, meaning the true spending on the process is likely much higher than the figures provided. …
The Bank said changes to the notes were necessary because of fraudsters replicating real money with greater ease.
But it added that a move away from historical figures should be framed as a “positive evolution”, rather than “censorship” or a “cancellation” of history.
Worth reading in full.
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Wildlife? The most appropriate must surely be rats.
Who cares who is on a banknote?
What’s a bank note?
I would like to think that a future Reform government would revert to the old style notes – can’t be that difficult in this digital age to recreate them. It would be a good use of taxpayers money
Churchill himself would probably be glad to be gone, not wanting to be associated with the crowd of half-witted, indolent, incompetent narcissists that make up the BoE, Civil Service and Government of the region formerly known as “England”.
“… “a backward-looking vision of the UK…”
Isn‘t that called history?
Right the. Let’s remove all Latin inscriptions, Latin based words, bury the A1 because it follow a Roman road, demolish Roman baths at Bath, rename days of week and months because of links with Romans and Germanic/Nordic tribes, poor old Boudicca will have to go from Hyde Park corner, all Ancient Greek must go, etc.
All this backward-looking stuff, slavery, conquest, colonisation – the horror!
I know who we should rid ourselves.
It should all be replaced with things from the future. The past is so… yesterday.
Da Comrade: the future is certain; it is only the past that is changeable.
Didn’t anyone tell the esteemed and quite expensive consultants that nature, wildlife and countryside based activities are white supremacist, exclusive, divisive and solely within the purview of privileged whites?
Well spotted.
This alone will be enough to ensure the flow of gongs and pay rises continues at the BiE despite its long term failure to deliver its main objective. Two per cent inflation was the instruction. In fact it has averaged 3.4 per cent and it is currently rising.
It would be curious to know more about the individuals who were consulted, such as for instance were they all English Welsh or Scottish?
Probably all interviewed at University freshers fairs or union conferences.
Or Northern Irish, I know we are almost back in the EU, never having left apparently, but even so….
You’re right, I don’t know why I excluded NI, stupid of me, sorry pal.
No worries
Or anyone who knows anything about our history.