Britain's Loss

Quite recently there was a furore that spread throughout England, the rest of Britain and way beyond about the creeping removal of the possessive apostrophe from road nameplates in Birmingham being made official. Many signs in Birmingham and many other towns and cities have lacked the apostrophe for years. One example is St Peter’s Close in my own Hall Green Ward. Other streets have kept their apostrophe while some locations such as St Paul’s Square in the City Centre have both. I will say nothing about the lack of a full stop after the abbreviation for Saint.
In other cases you need to know a bit of the history to be sure where the apostrophe should go. For example it is King’s Heath rather than Kings’ Heath but nearly everyone I know has always written Kings Heath. In my view preferred usage should accord with the wishes of local people but otherwise I cannot claim to be greatly exercised about the issue. But there is something else that is being lost that does concern me greatly. That is the loss of Britannia from our national coinage.
Britannia has been a symbol of Britain since Roman times and is strongly identified with and related to by most people. She is represented as a woman seated on a rock, carrying spear and shield and wearing a centurion’s helmet. Her image first appeared on the farthing coin in 1672, but is perhaps most fondly remembered from the old one penny until 1969. But after 336 years, people who no doubt regard themselves as modernisers and looking for something to do, have put an end to Britannia.
Would the French so disrespect Marianne - the national emblem of the French Republic? Of course not - just as they hang on to more of their manufacturing industry and in French ownership too.
What worries me is not simply the setting aside of history but the creeping loss of identity and indeed regard for national myth that has beset Britain (and England in particular) these many years. Another instance is the disregard for the statue of Boudicca (English tribal Queen of the Iceni who almost drove out the Romans). There is a cheap knick-knack stall directly beneath her statue by the Thames. Your history is a major part of your identity as an individual as well as a nation. I believe that a appreciation of History (from whence did I come?) Geography (what place is this?) and the Physical Sciences (what is the nature of my world?) are almost as important to the sense of self as one’s personal background.
Last year, existing designs were scrapped and with them Britannia from the 50p coin and replaced with part of a coat of arms with the symbols of the nations of the UK. Only if the coins were placed alongside each other would the full coat of arms be evident. Also ditched with Britannia are the lion on the 10p coin and the portcullis on the penny. How can our tradition be trashed so casually? Probably by the same mindset that ditched so much of our industry, exported so many of our jobs and paid themselves bonuses for doing so.
So I was very pleased when Birmingham Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming began a campaign among MPs to bring back Britannia. This has received support from members in all parties. The ideal candidate would be the £2 coin that presently carries an Olympic symbol that will disappear after the games in 2012 and so could be replaced by Britannia - who should never have been removed from our coins in the first place. Perhaps if we do regain that which was lost by that time we may also reclaimed some of the other national assets that have been so carelessly discarded - but probably not the nameplate apostrophes!