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Brexit 50p: Twitter users mock plans for commemorative coin

Remainers were quick to poke fun at the move with their own interpretations of the new coin.
Remainers were quick to poke fun at the move with their own interpretations of the new coin. Remainers were quick to poke fun at the move with their own interpretations of the new coin.

Critics of Brexit were quick to mock the Government’s plan to introduce a new 50p coin to mark the day Britain leaves the European Union.

The Sun reported that the commemorative coin, released on March 29, would bear the words “friendship with all nations”, and had the blessing of the Queen, whose head will feature on one side.

But while the paper hailed it as a “victory” after a recent campaign, Remain-leaning internet jokers were coming up with their own satirical jokes about the coin.

Labour MP Wes Streeting and left-wing comedian David Schneider both made the same quip, that the post-Brexit 50p would be what a £1 coin would be worth after Brexit.

Meanwhile Twitter user @OlafFalafel tweeted a photoshopped image of the piece featuring Dad’s Army’s Private Frazer and Lance Corporal Jones, along with their famous catchphrases “we’re doomed” and “don’t panic”.

Jono Read, a journalist at the anti-Brexit New European took the tone a little lower, with a picture of the poo emoji.

Keith Burge tweeted: “I think a commemorative 50p piece entirely appropriate, with each of the seven sides representing a different interpretation of what Brexit was supposed to mean.”

Others failed to see the funny side, with pro-Remain campaigner Lord Adonis tweeting: “This is repulsive, like a coin celebrating Suez or the Munich Agreement.”

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats’ Brexit spokesman Tom Brake tweeted: “The 50p coin will be nothing more than a sad & permanent reminder of the long lasting damage Brexit will do to our economy, credibility & influence in the world.

“Rather than a nonsensical coin, the people deserve a final say including the option to remain in the EU.”

And the SNP’s depute leader in Westminster tweeted:  “We were promised £350 million a week. Instead we’re getting 50p.”

Labour former minister Chris Leslie, speaking in the Commons, described the coin as “ridiculous”.

He said: “It is at points like this, particularly when I hear about that ridiculous 50p coin which of course will lose value literally as it is sitting in your pocket, that I realise the only way that we can secure a better future is to let the public decide and that’s why we should give

them a people’s vote.”