'Is it time to ditch the pound?' poll results/discussion

tldkid · 7 January 2009 at 5:03PM

So nobody has noticed how our decimal coins have begun to look like EUROs?
It'll happen and why care?

Sterling is a symbol of what? Our Imperial past? What relevance does this have to the person in street now?
The pound is not the symbol of Britain. It's what British people do that's important. The Franc and Mark were readily given up.
It's what (any) money can buy that's important.

Sage99 · 7 January 2009 at 5:58PM

I well remember the fuss over decimalisation, the cries of fury, the defiance, the threats of bloody revolution to protect our currency, our country, our freeeedommm!!

But who care now? Anyone who suggests that we convert our present currency to one of pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, with four farthings to a penny, twelve pennies to a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound, would attract derision, and would get little support. Apart from anything else, this would be completely beyond our modern educated youth (and their teachers) to cope with.

What we call our unit of currency doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is whether or not it is stable and holds it’s value. The Euro is far more stable and reliable, as the latest devaluation of the old pound has just proven.

There are no practical or sensible reasons why we should not have the Euro, as the wild assertions and inaccurate claims of other comments prove. But there are real reasons why we should seek the stability, convenience and power of the wide spread Euro.

The pound just is not sound
it is the Euro which is the hero!

Sage99

Sage99 · 7 January 2009 at 6:10PM

quote=teddyco;17372577

America declared war on King George's England because they wanted the right to represent themselves without England telling them when to jump and how high.

unquote

'America' did not exist at that time - it was part of King George's empire. So they did not 'declare war', they revolted against the unfair 'taxation without representation' and as far as I know, the UK has never actually granted America it's independance. But I could be wrong there.

neblett · 7 January 2009 at 6:47PM

I don't give a fiddlers about our 'sovereignity' or our goverment (well I do actually but...) I lived in Germany as a regular citizen just after the Euro was introduced. My husband, who is an American citizen, but lived and worked (as a citizen) in Germany for over 25 years, pre and post Euro. He saw his wages go from 2,500DM to 1,100€ per month literally overnight when the Euro was introduced, but ALL prices went from i.e. 10DM to 10€ (try working THAT one out).

The reason we then came back to the UK and leave his daughter (from a previous relationship) in Germany had nothing to do with any sort of propoganda / legislations / wars / disease etc, it was plain and simply because we couldn't afford to live in Germany any more due to the EURO :mad: .

Everyone I URGE you, if ever there is a referendum for us joining the Euro currency, please do NOT vote FOR it.

For anyone who believes the Euro is a good thing, I suggest you emigrate to a country that has the Euro (you'll soon be back).

arthur_dent_2 · 7 January 2009 at 7:01PM

Although there are many former Uk residents abroad suffering because of the poor euro, that does not mean that prices would go from ten pounds to ten euros. Even if they did we are practically at parity (and ten euros is less anyway ) and on a visit to France last year, yes somethings were more expensive, but I suggest that if you are a foreign tourist visiting the UK you would not know the cheap places to go and thus find us very expensive. We are a small country with less and less going for us daily. Do not be taken in by the media, the Euro is a good thing.

Sage99 · 7 January 2009 at 7:04PM

To Neblett
If his wage was reduced by more than half then obviously something was wrong and you should have sorted it out. Perhaps he was no longer wanted?

To imply that if Britain has the Euro everyone will have their wage cut by over half is an unsound argument and is a very good example of how weak is the case of the Europhobes

neblett · 7 January 2009 at 8:57PM

Sage99 wrote: »

To Neblett
If his wage was reduced by more than half then obviously something was wrong and you should have sorted it out. Perhaps he was no longer wanted?

... just to put the record straight on this response

1. There was nothing 'wrong' with his wages and therefore nothing 'to sort out'.
2. My husband worked for the same company for 12 years prior to and 4 years following the introduction of the Euro! The cut in his wages had nothing whatsoever to do with his abilities to carry out his job, but were solely due to the 'exchange rate' when it changed from DM to €.

FYI... my husband resigned from his position to come to the UK with me and not because they dismissed him. If required, I can give you his old company's information and you can phone them directly to confirm this!

europrima · 7 January 2009 at 11:41PM

The £ is weak against the Euro because of speculators.

These speculators are the same people whose greed fouled up the UK Banking System and caused unemployment through Private Equity buyouts.

They have also siphoned, into their own pockets, the money injected into the UK economy by the Government in in an attempt to resolve the present crisis.

Do not be fooled, the people causing these problems are stronger than the UK Government and the only way that they can be prevented from taking money out of our pockets and pension funds is by joining forces with the Euro.

:mad:

MikeH99 · 8 January 2009 at 12:23AM

MSE_Lawrence wrote: »

Poll Started 05 Jan 2009:

Is it time to ditch the pound?

The pound's dropped like a stone against the dollar and the Euro. Is it time we moved our currency into part of a bigger one?

Of course not. The lower value pound has been a huge help to exporters at this difficult time, whose products are now much cheaper to eurozone and dollar buyers. Without it they'd have had to cut costs either by cutting wages or actual jobs (see recent riots in Greece for what can result). What's more, people are flooding over from Europe to spend their money in our struggling retailers. All great news towards recovering from recession.

I know the media make a big fuss of it, as they thrive on doom, gloom and decline. But, really, what's the problem exactly? What's happening to the pound now, in difficult economic times, reflects exactly what having a flexible exchange rate is supposed to do. Be a pressure valve. That advantage reinforces how right we were to stay out of the euro when membership was a matter of serious debate many years ago.

Ultimately the value of the pound is only reflecting market faith in government policy. If there's a problem with its value, the sensible response would be to change the government or its policy, not resolve to abdicate essential levers of economic control like interest rates to the far more remote, 'one-size-fits-none' EU.

Politically-speaking, let's recognise that the people now saying we should reconsider joining the euro 'because of current circumstances' are the exact same people who were saying we should join the euro at its launch ... because the pound was 'too strong'.

This exposes their blinkered and outdated objective as being quite clearly only political - to push us further into a 1950s-envisaged, politically centralised European superstate, regardless of the cost to the rest of us.

Atb.

MikeH99 · 8 January 2009 at 12:28AM

musicmonkey1 wrote: »

If we were to go in it would all be about getting the right rate of exchange.

Very well said. All the economic arguments revolve around that rate. And how notable it is that those who advocate we join the euro never actually seem to specify the rate we should fix at. Shows how interested they really are in the economics of the matter.

'Is it time to ditch the pound?' poll results/discussion

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