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29th October 2018
03:16pm GMT

Presumably the rejected designs for the Brexit coin - a Missing Persons poster of David Cameron, Boris Johnson eating out of a garbage bin like a feral badger, Jacob Rees-Mogg chuckling ferociously at a small homeless child - didn't quite align with Hammond's 'positive signal' he wanted to send out to the world.
Which makes sense. There's nothing like reassuring everyone that you're fine, that absolutely everything is ok, honestly, it's all good at our end, you don't need to worry about us, like sticking "friendship with all nations" on the front of a coin.
It's a bit like someone you know having a bit of a falling out in the friendship group and shunning themselves off from the rest of the squad. You're concerned, so naturally, you go round to visit. To check everything is ok. Imagine this person then answers by walking out in their dressing gown and screaming the lyrics to 'Hey Jude' in your face, handing you a Christmas card (it is June) before telling you to please come and visit again soon and slamming the door, which isn't a door but actually just a binbag duct taped to top of the frame and hanging down like a curtain.
Would you then, maybe, be more concerned, or would you actually think, yeah, well, I was a bit worried for my friend, but not it definitely appears that they have absolutely everything in order and are completely and totally fine!
There might not be anything more British than carving our 'friendship with all nations' on the front of a coin that nobody else in the world will see unless they are already trapped on our rainsoaked prison island, trying to scramble together enough change to buy a pint of Ruddles in a Wetherspoons.
A coin. A friendship coin. A very literal token of international cooperation to be passed around exclusively in the UK. Plopped into crumbling styrofoam cups along the high street, falling down the backs of our rotting, cushionless sofas here and nowhere else.
That is our prize, the fatted Brexit calf with blue passport trimmings, that is our recompense for the uncertainty of the last two years and to mark the grand occasion, the big hoopla, of Britain finally leaving the EU.
But then again, it is very shiny. Oooooo.Explore more on these topics: