Best Of

"Bank of England axed Churchill, Turing, and Austen from notes after being told they were 'not representative of the UK's cultural and natural diversity'"

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15878403/Bank-England-axed-Churchill-Turing-Austen-notes-told-not-representative-UKs-cultural-natural-diversity.html

Totally circular logic. Young people who've become largely ignorant of our history and where knowledge is shared, told that it is shameful and wicked, strangely don't like or appreciate representations of it. Therefore we take it off bank notes so even fewer people are aware of our history and the idea that it is shameful is further reinforced. The only thing that should change on the banknotes is they should add text in plain English explaining why these people are there.

The way round this is to "Woke it up" to the powers that be, so they get all excited instead.

Thus, Turing is Gay, Austen a feminist icon and Churchill, with his dual British-American heritage, an internationalist and global citizen; you could try and put on there advocacy for a united Europe as well.

Watch how they lap it up.

young people dont use bank notes

US Congresswoman calls for sanctions to be placed on the officers involved in arresting Henry Nowak

https://x.com/realannapaulina/status/2062943462215856351

We should sanction the officers who did this. Don’t need them coming on vacation to the US. An absolute travesty.

I wonder if she realises that many Britons are avoiding/cancelling US vacations due to the current regime in the US.

Do the stats actually show that?

Staggering dip in US tourism is a troubling sign for the future

Son works for a middle sized tour company who mentioned this earlier in the year. Canada is up as are bookings worldwide for 2027/2028. It's not the lack of cash.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/25/travel/analysis-tourism-fewer-international-visitors-2025-vis

Thank-you - interesting.

I think the piece is a few months behind international perceptions, and is still trying to believe that it is a flesh wound, not an amputation. There are various things missing - such as the $250 surcharge Trump has imposed on international visitors over domestic visitors to visit national parks (and the problem that the pass has a picture of Trump on it - US Resident's version below):

For international (non-U.S.) tourists, national park entrance fees now include a surcharge. Foreign visitors pay a $250 non-resident annual pass. At 11 premium parks, tourists without an annual pass must pay an additional $100 per-person surcharge on top of the regular entrance fee.

That picture alone is enough to put me off visiting.

You can get very nifty stickers to go over it with animal or landscape pictures.

So it is now policy that if a pass is "defaced" by a sticker it is invalid.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/09/nx-s1-5672341/national-park-updates-guidelines-stop-visitors-defacing-trump-picture-pass

So the sticker now goes on a transparent sleeve you put it in.

The whole problem is de face on de pass.

Just wait until that ugly mug reaches greenbacks. It would be illegal, but who cares?

The man behind why living people are legally bound NOT to be put on US legal tender can be viewed below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_M._Clark

If they were never legal, the whole shebang can be declared invalid.

Tight control of the money supply - a la Maggie !!

Can the policy be announced in advance, so no one wants one?

"Bank of England axed Churchill, Turing, and Austen from notes after being told they were 'not representative of the UK's cultural and natural diversity'"

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15878403/Bank-England-axed-Churchill-Turing-Austen-notes-told-not-representative-UKs-cultural-natural-diversity.html

Totally circular logic. Young people who've become largely ignorant of our history and where knowledge is shared, told that it is shameful and wicked, strangely don't like or appreciate representations of it. Therefore we take it off bank notes so even fewer people are aware of our history and the idea that it is shameful is further reinforced. The only thing that should change on the banknotes is they should add text in plain English explaining why these people are there.

The way round this is to "Woke it up" to the powers that be, so they get all excited instead.

Thus, Turing is Gay, Austen a feminist icon and Churchill, with his dual British-American heritage, an internationalist and global citizen; you could try and put on there advocacy for a united Europe as well.

Watch how they lap it up.

Park the outrage bus. Did you actually read the article linked?

"Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the organisation's 'foremost objective' was maintaining the security of banknotes and combating increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting techniques.

The Bank also pointed to an earlier public consultation which found a majority of respondents favoured nature as the theme for future notes."

Historical figures on notes have always been changed from time to time (Elizabeth Fry was replaced by Churchill for example) as a security issue.

Wildlife makes a nice change, and no doubt will be replaced by something else in time.

Yes, I read it.

Didn't read your silly post though.

US Congresswoman calls for sanctions to be placed on the officers involved in arresting Henry Nowak

https://x.com/realannapaulina/status/2062943462215856351

We should sanction the officers who did this. Don’t need them coming on vacation to the US. An absolute travesty.

I wonder if she realises that many Britons are avoiding/cancelling US vacations due to the current regime in the US.

Do the stats actually show that?

Staggering dip in US tourism is a troubling sign for the future

Son works for a middle sized tour company who mentioned this earlier in the year. Canada is up as are bookings worldwide for 2027/2028. It's not the lack of cash.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/25/travel/analysis-tourism-fewer-international-visitors-2025-vis

Thank-you - interesting.

I think the piece is a few months behind international perceptions, and is still trying to believe that it is a flesh wound, not an amputation. There are various things missing - such as the $250 surcharge Trump has imposed on international visitors over domestic visitors to visit national parks (and the problem that the pass has a picture of Trump on it - US Resident's version below):

For international (non-U.S.) tourists, national park entrance fees now include a surcharge. Foreign visitors pay a $250 non-resident annual pass. At 11 premium parks, tourists without an annual pass must pay an additional $100 per-person surcharge on top of the regular entrance fee.

That picture alone is enough to put me off visiting.

You can get very nifty stickers to go over it with animal or landscape pictures.

So it is now policy that if a pass is "defaced" by a sticker it is invalid.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/09/nx-s1-5672341/national-park-updates-guidelines-stop-visitors-defacing-trump-picture-pass

So the sticker now goes on a transparent sleeve you put it in.

The whole problem is de face on de pass.

I had not considered it before, but the origin of "deface" is from Medieval times when the face of eg a miscreant would be "defaced" ('mutilatio'), such as removal of the nose or the ears.

Who knew ? Not me.

FWIW, I thought at the time that Obama's interference in the Brexit vote was wrong -- and may have been counter-productive, having the opposite effect he intended.

(What should he have done? Stayed silent unless asked, and then said he hoped that the EU and Britain would work through this to be better friends, however the vote went. And then changed the subject.)

I wasn't bothered by Obama's intervention because I'm a global free speech advocate, but the interesting point is how the left in the UK is fine with interventions from abroad as long as they agree with them, but they don't like it when they don't agree with them. So hypocrisy, in other words.

I suppose there is a thread. The US, then, felt they had an interest in the UK remaining part of the European Union. Now they seem to feel they have an interest in the UK succumbing to racial division and turning to far-right ethno-nationalism.

A lot of SNP folk were upset at Obama during the Independence Referendum for backing the Union but in reality like Brexit he backed the Status Quo.

Both were unknown Territory and in each case the US like markets wanted as much as possible, stability, predictability and continuity.

What makes this different as with intervening with backing Boris or Farage here or Orban in Hungary is a willingness to intervene directly in day to day politics and alter their course.

Still on the bright side, even if some people would welcome it, they haven’t sent Delta Force to kidnap Starmer and installed Farage!

Peter.