Mary Beard is right: the new set of 10p coins do look awfully ‘Theme Park Britain.’ I get the urge to keep the designs simple, but English Breakfast followed by Fish & Chips isn’t a very inspiring combination, and World Wide Web is utterly uninspired. [note]Not to mention, Tim Berners-Lee is unquestionably English, but he was working at CERN in Switzerland when he came up with the idea and the global spread of his invention has had at least as much to do with how American companies jumped on board the concept as anything that’s happened in Britain.[/note]
‘T’ clearly ought to stand for TARDIS. Granted, Gallifrey isn’t in the UK, but the Doctor is this generation’s combination of Gandalf and Merlin and he/she is a far more potent and positive symbol of Britain’s contribution to the world’s imagination over the last half-century or so than James bloody Bond! [note]For that matter, never mind ‘P’ for Postbox: ‘P’ should be for PTerry![/note]
Generally, it’s not a set of images that suggests a confident, forward-looking nation.
[Via Mary Beard]