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Joining Euro


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Guest PC Eejit

Boris - the one cent coin is smaller than the recent English half pence. Charities have never been so well off for donations since these coins appeared. I must contribute at least €20 a month in loose change to my local animal charity by filling up jars with these tiny coins :D

:ph34r:

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Guest Timeforabeer

As a frequent traveller to the continent..I must admit that the Euro is very handy. I have to travel to Germany which means that i had to carry four different currencies (mainly through vagrancy laws in each country). Now, i only have to carry one.

I would not like this country to enter the Euro because it would enable "Robber" Brown and "D**khead" Blair to undertake the sort of rip-off that would make a dodgy second hand car-salesman blush.

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Guest northamuk

I have to admit to LIKING the Euro! (not the small low value coins though). It is dead easy to compare prices in the various countries which use it.

I also have to agree that its introduction here would lead (as with all new currencies) to a fair amount of "rounding up" aka profiteering at the public's expense. It will be introduced eventually, I hope. :rolleyes:

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If we change to the €uro, we will not have full control of our currency and all that that entails. No, I don't want us to surrender our currency for the sake of less inconvenience for travellers and businesses. My son, who has lived in Germany for years, tells me that prices there have increased by about 30% on average since the €uro was introduced and the people are extremely annoyed about this. I wonder if PC Eejit can tell us if a similar situation with regard to price increases arose in Eire since the €uro's introduction there.

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Guest northamuk

peter e, it is true that there were price increases in Germany, I would say that it was not 30% though (certainly not "across the board"). I was there in May last year and again in November. I also lived there for 20 years.

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Guest PC Eejit

Peter - things were indeed, "rounded up"!

For instance, instead of paying rates or Council Tax, we used to pay £1.50 (in Irish money) for bin bags. You can chuck out as much stuff as you like as long as you use the specially marked bin bags (otherwise your rubbish just gets left there).

When the Euro came in, these bags should have been about €1.80.

They went up to €3 !!! I can't remember what the excuse was.

As for other stuff, it's not been anywhere near 30% - but the odd 3 or 4 pence has been added on to stuff (milk, bread etc.) which is unfair.

:ph34r:

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Guest PC Eejit

I forgot to add - Compare Dell.ie to Dell.co.uk for prices. It's WAY higher here!

And aren't Dell machines made in Ireland (In Limerick I think) - so I'm not sure where the extra costs come from.

:ph34r:

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Guest alloydog

Here in Finland, they have not had 1 or 2 penniä coins (= to about 0.01p & 0.02p in the UK) for many years and the Finnish government didn't bothered issuing the 1 & 2 cent coins. If you pay by credit or debit card, you pay the exact amount, however, it you pay by cash, 1 to 2 cents gets rounded down to 0, 3 & 4 gets rounded up to 5. When the change over happened, some shopps rounded up with the price conversions, but most rounded up/down fairly. I think the noticable price average price increase was only a few % - & this could has been the annual price hike anyway !

As for the arguements about control of ones' own currency & 'sovereignty', well that's just nationistic b*****t. Look at all the Euro-zone countries - there is still the wide range of salaries earned, taxes paid (or avoided...) prices & standards of living. If a single currency evens things out, then this is a good thing.

In the past, I have taken holidays in Europe where I crossed four or five borders, I lost so much money in currency transactions, but now with the Euro it wouldn't happen.

Most European countries have much better social services & welfare systems, public services (god knows when the last train crash was in Finland), so I would say the sooner the power of the British Government is diluted by a more social(ist!) regime, the better. I left the UK 4 years ago, and even though I took a 30% paycut & now pay about 10% more taxes, I would say my quality of life has improved considerabley - I was once anti-EU, anti-Euro, but now I'm all for it.

Rob.

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It's not b******t, alloydog. I respect your point of view but the EU itself admits that the financial gains of a single currency would be trivial and the real reason for it is "closer union". The cat's out of the bag and it's obvious that we are heading for a European Super State and not a free-trade partnership.

The UK is the world's fourth largest economy and second largest global investor. We are head of the Commonwealth which accounts for about a quarter of the world's population. Hence, we are big enough to stand on our own feet and don't need to be part of a European Super State which would speak and act for us.

If you do not control your own economy then you have very little power and are at the mercy of those who do control your finances - is that not self-evident? We contribute about £8.5 billion each year which may soon be raised to £11 billion and we get about £4.5 billion back in subsidies etc.

The European Commissioners and the President wield the real power and they are in no way selected democratically - they are appointed. The MEPs have no power at all - the European Parliament is just a talking shop and nothing else (life is good for an MEP on the European gravy train).

I'm not an unthinking nationalist or any thing like that - I just know that being part of a European Super State will be very bad for the people of this nation (but may be OK for small nations who receive more than they give - that's why they are queing up to join).

Pete

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Hi all

Well i have been living in Germany for the past 10 years, and i must say that the Euro suits me fine.

I live in Freiburg which is in the south west corner 30 km from the French and Swiss boarders.

Ok the Swiss don't have the Euro, but just nipping over to France to buy some English produce has become so much easyer cos of the Euro.

I have yet to see a 30% price increase on anything here.

Some things did go up, but also somethings went down in price.

Some shops did try and take the pi§§ a bit, but they were soon found out, and lost a lot of customers.

Where 1 DM is about €0.50 some shops tried to hike some prices eg.. to €0,70 for milk when it was DM 0.99, it looks cheaper but isn't, and this cought a lot of people out at the start, but not now.

any way that is my 2 cents worth. ;)

All the best

Tony

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Hi

Well it is very hard for me to comment on what the Germans think, as i never really get to watch any German news on the telly (i have sky here) 90% of my friends here are expats from English speaking nations (so i don't get many comments there).

just look at my cricket website in my sig to get an idea of our little community.

I don't know if England joining in with the Euro will boost Germany's economy at the moment.

The Germans i do speak to about Tony Blair seem to agree with me, I think he is a complete Muppet, with the hand of a bigger Muppet up his backside controlling him. (Admin feel free to edit this if you wish).

I will never go back to live in England (ok i can not say that i will stay here, but my wife is German and my kids are settled here) But i do know where my roots are i am English through and through. :)

But don't get me wrong i am not all for Germany Matter of fact i hate most of it, it is just this little corner i live in that i like.

I started working here in the construction industry in 1992, on what i call my 5 year plan :) but then met a girl and the rest is history. Maybe if i hadn't of met here i would be back in London now paying a fortune for my cigarettes , beer & petrol.

any way rant over :rolleyes:

All the best

Tony

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