Yahoo News The Londoner: Is Gandhi too divisive to be put on our currency?
A row is brewing over the decision to make Mahatma Gandhi the first non-white person on British currency. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent, backed a campaign to get black, Asian and other ethnic minority figures recognised and put on a banknote or coin. A person of colour has never been honoured in such a way.
But sources involved with the original campaign, which was cross-party, are unhappy with the Royal Mint’s decision to put Gandhi on a coin, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter movement. A source told us “Gandhi is a divisive figure. While revered, his well-publicised attitudes on race towards black people are problematic.” One example various campaigners have pointed to is Gandhi’s 1903 call that in South Africa white people “should be the predominating race.”
A source said: “We wanted this to be an open, inclusive project which taught some history about how black, Asian and other minorities fought and died for Queen and country. Also, military figures would have helped to heal the divisive row about statues. We wanted to unite people.”
A well-intentioned decision may end up inflaming the culture war over coins.
---
NICHOLAS HOULT might have become a household name in 2002 with About a Boy, but at a special drive-in screening of the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road this weekend Hoult revealed to co-star Charlize Theron: “I knew I really arrived as an actor when there was a scene when you spat in my face. I think I asked politely, ‘Do you mind if I spit back?’”
---
LOCKDOWN has made Londoners lusty and keen to get back on the dating scene. Tickets for speed dating are on the rise. Andrew Summersgill, managing director of Original Dating, says: “It certainly seems there’s pent up demand.” Rest assured, though, there will be social distancing and plenty of hand sanitiser. And they say romance is dead.
SW1A
Believe Baroness Mone when she says “don’t ever take me on”. The entrepeneur tells Paul McKenna’s podcast If you ever bring trouble to my doorstep in terms of business...then you’re the one that will fail. She adds “I will get to you’. It might take me a few months or a few years but I will finally grill you down.” Be afraid...
---
LABOUR is on a hiring spree, looking for a brace of political advisers, an organiser in Scotland and an intriguingly named “dynamic projects manager”. Keir Starmer’s backroom revolution gathers pace.
---
Many congratulations to Labour’s only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray of Edinburgh South, and his partner Mariam, who are having their first child at the end of August. “A wee girl. Couldn’t be more excited” he tells us. Stockpile the sleep now.
Bit overdressed, but Carr’s summer-ready
ALAN CARR got into the swing of summer last night, telling his followers: “I’ll tell you something, it’s too hot for tights”. He’s not wrong. Meanwhile, author Emma Dabiri cut loose on a trampoline, Poppy Delevingne said it so was hot she was “tempted to stick this lolly in my eyeball”, and actor Naomi Ackie celebrated her best supporting actress Bafta. That’s how you do glamour at home.
