This
story may have already become too poisoned a well to sup from, after
a
bunch of bullying thugs chose to gang up on campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez on Twitter. It is galling beyond belief that you
should even need to say this. But threatening to rape a woman is
pretty much the far frontier of not okay.
But,
should it be possible to get back to the main issue, who is it who wants more women on
banknotes? What sort of person identifies with banknotes in the first
place? For most of us, aren't they things which take way too long to
earn, then get pulled out of your fingers far too quickly? Do we
actually keep hold of them long enough to start identifying with
them?
We're
in a time when study after study have shown how the
ConDem cuts are having a disproportionately high effect on women.
To the point where their class war on the poor could quite
legitimately be called a gender war as well. To focus right now on
(of all things) banknotes, like they can be seen as our joint
property or something, seems bizarre in extremes.
It's
a sadly familiar picture. Progressive social movements rightly choose
horizontal structures. But despite that formal feature, it's still
the privileged elements who come to dominate - with their social and
networking skills, their unspoken confidence that they know what's
best. The whole group comes to dance to their agenda, often without
even noticing.
So
how about a more appropriate suggestion for what goes on the British
banknote? Let's cut out the arguments by dispensing with people
altogether. Instead let's have a series of historical incidents –
the great atrocities of the British Empire. The Fiver could kick off
with a relatively minor massacre by its standards, such as
Jallianwala Bagh where the death toll only hit triple figures. They
could then work up to the invention of the concentration camp in the
Boer War, which would look princely on the Fifty. Or perhaps we could
incorporate the Iraq War, and start off with pound-denomination notes
but switch to dollars as they got bigger?
Then, whenever we pulled a note out of our pockets, we could all be
reminded where Britain got it's wealth. And wouldn't that just make
you proud?
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