A Boxer Joins the £20 Note Debate
Reading the sports’ pages of today’s Scotsman to follow the pundits’ opinions of my football team’s performance on Sunday, I came across yet another reference to Smith’s image on the £20 note.
This could only happen in boxing. A Scottish boxer, Alex Arthur, the new European super-featherweight champion, displayed both his articulate manner on the subject of his place in history and his great sense of timing.
Immediately after stopping his opponent in the fifth round he issued a statement that a rising politician or ebullient entrepreneur would envy on their best day.
‘No disrespect to Adam Smith. He clearly created a great piece of work studying the rise of industry and commercial development in Europe and making the case for free markets – but come on, I’m the first ever Scottish fighter to win both the British and European super-featherweight titles.’
He immodestly felt his achievements so far, merited his face, not Smith’s, on the banknote. I believe that this is called ‘Chutzpah’, which in English if not in the original Yiddish, means ‘admiration of non-conformist but gutsy audacity’.
Now if only we can get my beloved ‘Heart of Midlothian Football team’ to show a bit more Chutzpah of the Alex Arthur type when playing each week, then they could close the gap between themselves at the no 2 spot in the Scottish Premier League behind Celtic, the number 1, and widen it between themselves and the team in the number 3 spot!
Meanwhile, Adam Smith will remain, I hope, securely on schedule to appear on the £20 note in 2007.
This could only happen in boxing. A Scottish boxer, Alex Arthur, the new European super-featherweight champion, displayed both his articulate manner on the subject of his place in history and his great sense of timing.
Immediately after stopping his opponent in the fifth round he issued a statement that a rising politician or ebullient entrepreneur would envy on their best day.
‘No disrespect to Adam Smith. He clearly created a great piece of work studying the rise of industry and commercial development in Europe and making the case for free markets – but come on, I’m the first ever Scottish fighter to win both the British and European super-featherweight titles.’
He immodestly felt his achievements so far, merited his face, not Smith’s, on the banknote. I believe that this is called ‘Chutzpah’, which in English if not in the original Yiddish, means ‘admiration of non-conformist but gutsy audacity’.
Now if only we can get my beloved ‘Heart of Midlothian Football team’ to show a bit more Chutzpah of the Alex Arthur type when playing each week, then they could close the gap between themselves at the no 2 spot in the Scottish Premier League behind Celtic, the number 1, and widen it between themselves and the team in the number 3 spot!
Meanwhile, Adam Smith will remain, I hope, securely on schedule to appear on the £20 note in 2007.
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