Should only be deceased persons on the note and people of huge historic importance. Which rules out rubbish footballers like Beckham (why him and not one of the 1966 team members?).
Petition for Alan Turing on £10 note breaks 20,000 signatures
A petition to get British wartime crypto-boffin Alan Turing on the next ten-pound note has broken 20,000 signatures on the government's e-petition site. At least 23,157 people have signed the pledge that praises his contribution to computer science, the nation and the world, and calls for Turing to replace Charles Darwin when …
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Monday 29th October 2012 15:40 GMT Phil W
Re: They'll probably refuse to put Turing on there....
Not entirely sure what the downvotes are for?
I never suggested I considered him a criminal, or that I thought he shouldn't be on the notes.
But if you think our bureaucratic government wouldn't refuse to put him on the notes for this reason then you're apparently unfamiliar with our government.
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Wednesday 31st October 2012 13:05 GMT Phil W
Re: They'll probably refuse to put Turing on there....
Turing has a criminal record due to being convicted of being a homosexual, which at the time was illegal in the UK. (Not saying I think this should be a crime, simply that at the time it was and he has convicted).
There has previously been a campaign to have this conviction posthumously pardoned, which failed on the grounds that the courts won't overturn a genuine conviction for a crime simply because it is not a crime anymore. ( I do agree with this, since it's the equivalent of changing a speed limit from 30 to 40 and then overturning the convictions of those caught doing speeds >30 but <40 on that road previously).
Not saying I agree with it, but his criminal record would likely be used as a reason not to put him on bank notes.
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Monday 29th October 2012 15:19 GMT Jedit
"What about Montgomery ?"
What about Montgomery? My grandfather was in Africa during World War II where he served in the First Army, and it always annoyed him that people think Montgomery and the 8th Army were the only ones there. If you want to put anyone on a bank note for the Tunisian Campaign make it General Sir Harold Alexander, who commanded it.
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Monday 29th October 2012 14:44 GMT pompurin
Re: Flowers
The BBC showed an excellent documentary on Bletchley Park last night and it was sad to hear about the Tommy Flowers story. His son showed an IT certificate of him passing a dBASE,WordPerfect and Excel course in the early 1990s when he was in his 80s, something he had initially invented 50 years before. These people really deserve our utmost respect.
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Monday 29th October 2012 14:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Decent people who have done something useful
That would include (emphatically) Turing, Flowers, and Berners-Lee. They would be fit company for Adam Smith (a far nicer and more decent man than his image nowadays, thanks to selective quotation).
Sportsfolk and spivs (no matter how rich) should be ruled out on principle.
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Monday 29th October 2012 15:30 GMT Roby
I didn't realise there were different series. I was gonna say why on earth would you want to replace Darwin. As much as I love Turing and think it was terrible how he was treated, I love having Darwin on the £10 note. But if the £10 note is getting a routine redesign then yes to Turing! That would be awesome.
This kind of thing should not be decided by the public. The only thing most of the public know about is celebrities, as illustrated by the list:
"David Beckham, Richard Branson, Princess Diana, Terry Pratchett, Jonny Wilkinson, John Cleese and Terry Wogan"
It should be an historical figure of great significance, and something decided not by a public popularity contest in which morons (aka most of the population) can vote.
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Monday 29th October 2012 19:29 GMT Kevin Reilly
Don't forget Bill Tutte
Tutte was the bloke at Bletchley who cracked the Lorenz cypher after bring rejected by Turing for the Enigma team. then Tommy Flowers built the computer to automate it. This crack was more valuable than Enigma even after the war. As the USSR plundered it from the Nazis unaware that GCHQ monitored it right through the cold war.
Also cracking Enigma had a lot to do with the Poles who smuggled a machine out and the sub hunters who captured a naval machine. Enigma cracking was far was far from the one gay achievement some would have you all believe.
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Tuesday 30th October 2012 09:15 GMT Terry Barnes
Re: Don't forget Bill Tutte
Indeed it was an effort by many people - but then you're discounting Turing's wider contributions to computer science - a subject that he pretty much founded - Turing's thesis and the universal Turing machine are essential foundations for everything that has come after.
Why do you belittle the breaking of Enigma as a "gay achievement"? His sexuality didn't define his brilliant mind, it's only mentioned in conjunction with his life and work because of the appalling treatment he suffered at the hands of our government and society.
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Monday 29th October 2012 20:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
How about
Winston Churchill--though we could put him on a Dollar-denominated bill since he was made an honorary citizen of the U.S.
George III--maybe also on a Dollar-denominated bill in honor of his immense contribution to American independence
Isabard K. Brunel
Isaac Newton
Thomas Bacon
Charles Dickens (but I think he might already be on a note)
John Lennon
Christopher Marlowe
Geoffrey Chaucer
Thomas Faraday
Guy Ritchie (deserves something for having been married to Madonna)
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Tuesday 30th October 2012 11:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: How about
Isaac Newton (done - £1 note)
Thomas Faraday? who is he. MICHAEL Faraday (done £20 note)
Dickens (done as you said)
Perhaps we should just go down the list of "100 greatest britons" and exclude old monarchs (as you don't want 2 monarchs on a note really).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons
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Tuesday 30th October 2012 11:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
My list
Richard Dawkins (just to piss most of the US off and to accompany Charles Darwin)
The Archbishop of Canterbury (to balance Richard Dawkins)
The Pope (to balance the CoE vs Catholic thing)
God (to make a set with the Pope)
The prophet Muhammed 'peace be upon him' (actually just a blank space where his image would be as we don't want to offend anybody)
Satan (to balance the God thing)
Pam Ayres
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Wednesday 31st October 2012 13:00 GMT Phil E Succour
Re: Only one living person...
Well I think Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was on a Scottish bank note during her lifetime, and whilst she was married to one head of state and mother of another she wasn't actually one herself. Then there was Edmund Hillary on a Kiwi note. And I seem to remember some proposal to put Jack Nicklaus on Scottish note in recognition of his prowess on the links, but I don't know if it ever happend.
So your count of one might be off.
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