British wildlife on new banknotes - shortlist revealed

[kinkytoes]

Would love to know your thoughts!

Will you be voting? What are your top 6?

I'm still struggling to decide!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgzrpe6mzjo

Haha crossposted - I'm glad we both fondly remember the snipe!

We had this in Canada, too. When they brought in the one-dollar coin instead of the bill (note), they embossed it with a picture of that quintessentially Canadian bird, the loon.

Sure enough, the coin became known as the Loonie, because everyone thought it was a crazy idea!

Great criteria there, makes it much easier to choose I should think!

Thanks for this.
I went hedgehog, fox, kingfisher, barn owl, bee & butterfly

The bumble bee for me 🐝

Thank you for this OP, I didn't know about it.

Off to make my choices although I would have chosen a badger if it was there 😔

No badger ?
No robin ? What's more iconic than a robin ?
No vole ?
No red kite ? - one of the best re-introduction success stories
No otters ?
No deer ? - and there's lots of choose from there

Never in a million years would I have thought of including a dolphin - and I do come from the coast!

I voted for hare, hedgehog, owl, kingfisher, frog and dragonfly. It's a lovely idea and I have no time for the made up outrage that this is apparently causing some people who object to the idea of Churchill no longer being on a bank note.

I would have voted for a Robin too.

I'll miss the previous historical ones though. It's just part of our history. Yet another bit going... makes me a bit sad.

mind you, rarely use cash these days anyway I suppose.

Yeah I thought that was an
odd choice too.

Exactly!!

The hedgehog and the curlew need to get a PR consultant. European - Eurasian!!!

Won't be popular with the Brexiteers.

I voted hedgehog and dolphin, kingfisher and owl, bee and butterfly.

@DPotter I agree, dolphins seem to me more of a worldwide creature rather than associated with GB.

I would like to have seen otters as an option too!

Why do you say it's made up outrage??

personally I'd prefer they stuck to the historical figures.

but I voted anyway as it's going to happen.

Yeah I'd have definitely chosen an otter if it had been an option!

I get what you are saying but don't forget that our wildlife is also a part of our history ❤️

The quotes I've seen from some politicians around this seem to suggest that Churchill has always been on bank notes and that replacing with wildlife is part of 'political correctness gone mad'. Badenoch said 'removing Churchill from banknotes is erasing our history'. That really is crazy made up outrage about redesigning something that is redesigned every 10 years or so to help stop counterfeit notes. I don't believe she really thinks it's erasing our history. Unless she thinks when he replaced Elizabeth Fry 10 years ago, that was also erasing history?

People may well think it's better to have historical figures rather than wildlife and that's fair enough. But people who call it 'absolutely crackers' (Farage) are a bit odd in my opinion. I don't get it.

Anyway, I think it will be lovely to have wildlife. I would have also voted badger if that had been a choice.

Hedgehog, Hare, Barn Owl, Kingfisher, Butterfly and Bumblebee. Was hard to drop the Woodpecker though.

Would definitely have liked to see otter and badger up on the list instead of dolphin or salmon. Neither seem iconic GB animals.

I think they’re lovely.
Top picks would be Hare, Hedgehog, Barn Owl and Butterfly
They’re the ones that say “British countryside”
most to me
Strange that there’s no red squirrel though

Our wildlife is dull compared to other countries. I think if we can't have people, we should have gone for buildings. Most of the animals chosen are pests.

Stoaty McStoatface?

Our wildlife is “dull” because we wiped a lot of it out. It sounds as though you’d like that to continue. We should learn to live alongside what wildlife we still have.

Other than (arguably) foxes, which of the animals shortlisted are pests?

I see dolphins more often than I see foxes.

The most exciting wildlife I've seen recently was a pair of beavers on a local river.