Lambeth Green Party have launched a crowd-funding campaign for its candidate in a local currency in what’s thought to be a world first.
Rashid Nix, Dulwich and Norwood candidate who grew up in Brixton, is raising funds in Brixton pounds (B£).
Mr Nix’s campaign follows Gulnar Hasnain, Green Party candidate for Vauxhall, who hit the headlines as the first UK parliamentary candidate to accept payment to her crowd funding in bitcoins.
“For every pound spent in local shops, the majority stays in the local economy. For every pound spent in chain stores, the money leaves.
Who will be peeking out of your wallet soon? Former PM John Major to be face of @brixtonpound http://t.co/Y4QYgEoMQ3 pic.twitter.com/BOtHwQUhQr
— South West Londoner (@SW_Londoner) April 1, 2015
“That is why it is so important to support local currencies like the Brixton pound (B£), which encourage people to shop in our local, independent stores.”
Brixton-born Major was lauded as being the first politician of the modern era to feature on a bank note, pipping Winston Churchill to the honour.
The B£ has no plans to actually launch the note, but some SW Londoner readers were fooled by the story which prompted several furious responses.
Guy Joyce said: “Inclusive, diverse, equality – three words that don’t spring to mind when you think of the Thatcher Britain that Major helped create.
“A bloke from humble beginnings who drags himself up can do two things, return to those humble beginnings and help make them less humble or do all he can to make them worse.
“I know which I’d choose. I wouldn’t wipe my arse with this note or accept it as change.”
Sandra admitted she initially fell for the prank but soon put two and two together.
She commented: “WTF! John Major the architect of the wonderful Masstricht Treaty.
“Cue rage, cue anger, check the date, feel a mug. Ha!”
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted the nom de plume Nellie Tromper used by editor Helen Le Caplain.
Nellie, not that she’d answer to it on any other day, is a variation on Helen while ‘Tromper’ is a nod to her French surname and translates as ‘fool’.
Note-able faces who have actually featured on the note include David Bowie, British professional basketball player Luol Deng and a World War II French-British secret agent Violette Szabo, among others.
Image courtesy of Terance smith via YouTube, with thanks