{"id":553934,"date":"2026-03-22T20:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553934\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:49:12","slug":"the-trope-of-choosing-pets-over-people-is-not-new-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553934\/","title":{"rendered":"The trope of \u2018choosing pets over people\u2019 is not new | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Jonn Elledge (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/mar\/16\/britain-banknote-winston-churchill-badger-wildlife\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What\u2019s worth more: Churchill or a woke badger? Welcome to Britain\u2019s banknote culture war, 16 March<\/a>) is right that the debate over whether wildlife might replace figures such as Winston Churchill on Bank of England banknotes has become another front in Britain\u2019s culture wars. As he notes, proposals to feature animals are neither unprecedented nor unpopular, with public consultation showing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c4geyyg9en6o\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">majority support<\/a> for nature-themed designs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But the backlash relies on a familiar claim: that attention to wildlife represents a misplaced priority \u2013 \u201cthe definition of woke\u201d, as Nigel Farage put it. This framing is not new. During the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/aug\/26\/uk-defence-secretary-complains-about-pleas-to-rescue-pets-from-kabul\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2021 evacuation efforts of animal charity Nowzad in Kabul<\/a>, the story was reduced to \u201cpets over people\u201d, despite the fact that both animals and staff were saved. Similar narratives now position social care\u00a0v climate concern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">What this gets wrong is the assumption that care for animals is opposed to care for humans \u2013 or that capacity is the preserve of a narrow metropolitan elite. I work on an ecological project with young working-class men in the north-east of England. Far from rejecting environmental issues, many express care for wildlife through everyday experiences: noticing birds, bees and trees; valuing green space; and worrying about pollution and habitat loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The \u201cwoke beaver\u201d narrative creates a false choice between people and planet. But the problem isn\u2019t the beaver on the banknote \u2013 it\u2019s a politics that no longer recognises what holds value.<br \/>Dr Michael J Richardson<br \/>Senior lecturer in human geography, Newcastle University<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/mar\/22\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonn Elledge (What\u2019s worth more: Churchill or a woke badger? Welcome to Britain\u2019s banknote culture war, 16 March)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-553934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}