Sometimes, just sometimes, the Daily Mail (or the Mail on Sunday, which pompous Hitchens should realise is the same damn thing) manages to break out of its never-ending cycle of immigrants, gay immigrants and gay immigrants on welfare to find something really new and imaginative to have a hissy fit about. Whilst dutifully shopping in Sainbury’s, I saw such an achievement on the Mail’s front page today:
Brown banishes 300-year-old tradition by removing Britannia from our 50p coin
Yes, apparently a redesign of our coins is an even more important threat to our lives than those benefit-cheating homo-migrants today. Accepting this, a sensible headline would have been Royal Mint redesigns coinage. But no. Moving on:
Gordon Brown’s campaign to promote British values was exposed as a sham last night after it was revealed he personally approved a decision to remove Britannia from the 50p coin. The patriotic symbol – based on a Roman goddess – will no longer be on any British coin for the first time in more than 300 years, as part of a redesign by the Royal Mint. An overhaul of all coinage in April, being billed as the most significant change to the currency since decimalisation, will see it replaced with a representation of modern Britain.
OK, OK, alright. Maybe it is necessary to spin a redesign of coins into an emotional outburst most befitting a toddler tantrum. In that case, I humbly suggest a different angle…
Gordon Brown’s bold defence of British values continued in earnest last night after it was revealed he personally melted down every last 50p coin featuring Britannia. The symbol – based on an Roman goddess – will finally be removed 300 years after European bureaucrats first insisted on imposing the pagan imagery on British coins. Although Britain’s money will remain decimalised – robbing British shoppers of their beloved shillings, farthings and bartered goods – the coinage will now at least depict a representation of modern Britain: village churches, white people and Henry VIII.
(Apparently, Phillipa thinks this blog has a ‘relaxed’ tone: this should put her right 
)
In amidst all this, I should really mention the funeral, which felt ‘right’ to me. My dad made a very good speech, there were some brilliant photos and lots of people came. I even learnt that my grandad had had a rather relaxed attitude to health and safety during his working life, which further adds to the feeling that I haven’t received my fair share of ‘practical skills’ genes.
P.S. I think it’s worth mentioning, and I quote from the Beast itself, “the traditional Britannia design and other traditional designs will return in future mint runs.”
Don’t stress, she is actually hungry for online fame 
(Afterwards, we made up and recorded our own Dale-inspired dance effort, complete with a suit. This won’t be shown )
We had our first Themes and Sources class today, mine on Utopian Writing. And do you know, it’s weird to be back sitting in chairs around a room with around 30 people discussing things. I’m suspicious of the way it’s presented as a novelty from lectures: no no, we’ve done this for years in school and to be honest I for one was getting quite fond of the ‘sit silently for an hour’ format of lectures. Nevertheless, it was an interesting class and obviously the balance of power is rather different from the old days of A-Level English classes. (The balance of power now being that everyone pretty much contributes equally, and no-one puts their bare feet on the desks. Holly, I’m talking to you here.)
I had a really odd bout of nostalgia this morning: for TV gameshows. And specifically, the very late 90s \ early 00s combination of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and The Weakest Link. The thing about these shows was the way literally everyone absorbed the catchphrases and so on: I’m hardly an avid fan of the gameshow genre and someone like my dad even less so, and yet still we watched. (Sure, we watched WWTBAM when someone was close to a million, and The Weakest Link because it was just before The Simpsons, but why quibble?) I’m actually slightly looking forward to being older, when everyone of my generation will get the reference to ‘phone a friend’ or whatever and the young people will look puzzled, before shaking their heads and going back to watch Big Brother: Death Row Extravaganza.
(It’s Saoirse’s fault that this happened – though Make It Up was a work of some genius and I hope one day she brings it to a wider audience.)
Grandad
In the early hours of Thursday morning, my grandad died. He was in his 80s, and it wasn’t unexpected, and – thankfully – he was healthier than many others for much of his life. And yet, and yet… still a sad time.
It’s odd, to think about grandparents, given how much they shaped your life long before you were born and yet how removed they are – growing up in another time, another world. It wasn’t until today that I thought that, of course, in my full name I’m actually named after George. And it’s indirect, and fragmentary, but I do feel I can trace parts of me back to him – in who he was, and what he did.
Not in a literal sense, of course: as a working-class builder from Suffolk, he had both the practical skills to do what I still refer to as a ‘proper job’ and the countryside nous to grown his own food in the garden. (Reflect, sadly, that my version of this amounts to cooking my own packets of Dolmio pasta in the microwave.) As a father to my dad, though, he let him make his own decisions – encouraging and supportive – and never became a figure of fear. That’s an ethos that I grew up with, too.
So, goodbye, and thanks 
(The funeral’s on Friday – it’ll be good to see family.)
I love pinboards by doors…
To some people’s evident disappointment, I am not and and have never been a member of the Communist party…
Must be off, since I’m about to be set real work to do!
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
