Old familiar faces?
What do David Beckham, Richard Branson, Princess Diana, Mick Jagger, Stephen Hawking, John Cleese and Terry Wogan all have in common with computer pioneer Alan Turing?
The answer, surprisingly, involves £10 notes. All of the above names have been suggested as the figurehead to be used on the next issue of the note. English bank notes carry a picture of the Queen on one side and a distinguished figure on the other. Without rummaging through your wallet or purse to find one, do you know who who is featured on the back of the current issue £10 note? If it is difficult recalling the face on the £10 note, the £20 face is even harder to remember.
The government e-petition site has a number of petitions currently running which each call for someone to be the next £10 portrait. The petition calling for Alan Turing has so far received 25,000 signatures, compared to just six signatures on a similar petition for Queen Victoria. The petitions are open until March 2013. The Treasury has not yet stated when the current £10 note will be replaced, but it has made available a list of the names put forward by the public for consideration on the next design.
www.skillzone.net/shortcut/nl59notes
This subject will no doubt consume a lot of committee time while it is debated, it will be discussed in newspapers, and there will be a complex handover procedure where the old notes are withdrawn to be replaced by the new,... but does anyone really care? As long as they don't change the colour, most people will barely notice.
28th November 2012