If ever there was a government action that showed that those in government were also in a bubble that insulates them from the views and concerns of the general public, then the decision by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to release a fifty pence coin with the words ‘Diversity Built Britain’ stamped on it, would be a prime example. This coin with its thoroughly dishonest words was cooked up between Mr Sunak’s department and a group of identity politics activists that even those of us who are engaged in and aware of politics had never heard of.

The group that Sunak is working with to create this and other types of pro diversity coins is called ‘We Too Built Britain’ and had at the time of writing only 153 followers on Twitter. I was only made aware of this group when the You Tuber ‘We’ve Got A Problem’ featured it on his site in connection with this story. This means that our Chancellor is working with a group that has virtually zero support in the general population to push an untrue message that nobody needs to hear. This is left wing propaganda via our coinage and has rightly annoyed and upset many people.

Now I’m all for recognising the contribution that all have made to the growth of the UK but the message on this coin is completely unhistorical. It gives the false impression that ‘diversity’ has been a part of British history since time immemorial, when that is plainly not the case. It was not ‘diversity’ that built the castles that still stand throughout our land, nor what developed the scientific and technical advancements that allowed the United Kingdom to be the first to industrialise and neither was it ‘diversity’ that created the Mother of Parliaments. British people did that. It was Britons, many under the harsh conditions of serfdom that constructed the castles, Britons making enormous technical leaps who made scientific advancements and British thinkers and politicians that over the course of centuries turned Britain from a feudal system to the constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected House of Commons that we see today. ‘Diversity’ built none of that and it is woefully dishonest of the Chancellor to tell us otherwise.

It is right and proper that we recognise the contributions of minorities to Britain, whether it be the Black Briton Samuel Coleridge-Taylor who was known as the African Mahler, Jack Cohen the Jew who built a market stall into one of Britain’s biggest supermarkets, Tesco, the Anglo-Indian singers Cliff Richard and Englebert Humperdinck, or the West Indian footballer and war hero Walter Tull. But although those people played either large or small parts in helping to develop modern Britain, they did not build it, Britain was already there for them to move to or operate in. It is in fact the British, not the vague and all too easily polticised concept of ‘diversity’, that built Britain.

I’m disgusted by this dishonest and lying coin and so are many others. Some have even declared that they will not spend this coin and others have said that they are so angry that they will deface it, but not on the side with the Queen’s portrait, as that would be an insult to the monarch, but on the side with the offensive political words. I did once believe that Rishi Sunak was a ‘safe pair of hands’ for the job of Chancellor. He had a investment and banking background and seemed ideally suited to the job. Sadly this case shows that he is capable of monstrous bad judgement and has approved a coin that will do little to bring people together but will drive people apart and increase the feeling among the populace that the government is not on the side of the majority.

Just looking at the adverse reaction to this case shows me what a terrible mistake has been made here both with the coin itself, which is quite rightly getting criticism, by taking orders from a small identity politics group that most have never heard of and by the initial publicity images that have turned out to be a godsend for meme comedians (see below). If Rishi Sunak can make such a monumentally crass and poor decision about something like a coin, how can he expect the rest of us to have any confidence in his management of the economy? The answer is we cannot. If he is stupid enough to be influenced by some no mark identity politics grifters like ‘We Too Built Britain’, then he could well be stupid enough to make other equally disastrous decisions?

Image showing the Chancellor, the dishonest coin and a backdrop of Islamic rapists.