Facing The Future

The matter of whose face should appear on the next edition of our £20 banknotes has been under discussion for a while and this comment may be a bit late in the day.

But if HMG wish to take a positive approach they might consider taking the decision into their own hands.  What criteria might be adopted to do so?

There has been the view that it ought to be a woman and some say not Britannia who is an image of the past.  So perhaps it might be a person who can represent both the past and the future.

Also, it should not be elitist and this means no authors who have written books regarded as "classics" as well as others who are top draw in something or other.  This would never do.

It would have to be someone liked and admired in her time and gave towards the greater happiness of the toiling masses.  Yet there would have to be some reference to people as they are now.

Which brings me to the once famous and much loved Two Ton Tessie O'Shea, otherwise Teresa Mary, see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography via Google sign in rather than Wikipedia for the fuller story.

I did see her in live performance once and she was certainly value for money in the old variety halls.  But I would not have liked her in the back of my 1934 Austin 7 with its dodgy suspension.

Weighing in at 17 stone plus she was unusual then but would be normal now.  She was a "pop" star and entertainer of her time and of the people.

More to the point she was very good at the great cause and lost art of simply cheering people up.