Who prefers Euro's to the £

[Normandy seagull]

Let it be universal- It is ssssssssoooooooooooo easy!!!! Without the euro I would be fcuked or "dans la merde"

 

[Mr C]

Hmm... it appears to me that the strongest argument the pro-Euro lobby can come up with is "it makes things easier when travelling and avoids all that mucking about changing currencies."

Isn't part of the fun of travelling abroad that you get to use different currencies??

Oh, and all the negatives associated with the Euro are outweighed by the above argument are they?

 

[alan partridge]

Hmm... it appears to me that the strongest argument the pro-Euro lobby can come up with is "it makes things easier when travelling and avoids all that mucking about changing currencies."

Isn't part of the fun of travelling abroad that you get to use different currencies??

Oh, and all the negatives associated with the Euro are outweighed by the above argument are they?

erm there are a few well argued reasons FOR the Euro apart from the 'it makes things easier' one. Didn't you read the thread?

Anyway, the floor is yours, what's your opinion on the subject?

Oh and strike.....we haven't forgotten you baby...

why?

 

[beorhthelm]

Looney, I know nothing much about economices, but how come if we would require tax harmonisations, yet EVERYTHING here is more expensive than say France ( by everything I mean everyday items, food, clothes, electrical hardware, property, cars, fuel) ?

Unless you have some hard empirical proof of that id say that is complete bollocks. I remember reading a study around 2000 that took a typical households bills for a month, comparing a English home with a French one. They where the same give or take a couple of quid/euros. for everything that was cheaper in France, somthing would balance it out and be cheaper in the UK. The only two significantly different items where Mortgage rates and even then the mortgage repayments cancelled out by much high banking fees and cost of insurance. Alot of goods we treat as everyday essentilas are condsidered luxuries on the continent, and the often given example of car prices is distorted due to the higher continental VAT (if you buy a car in say Belgium you dont pay the 22% VAT but get charged 17.5 by HM Customs when importing it).

All told, the cost of living is pretty much the same between the major european countries and the UK. BUT our taxes are lower, so if we where to maintain our cost of living under the Euro, we'd need an instant and substantil increase in salaries straight away.

 

[Strike]

I just feel its corrupt and not as stable as the pound. I could go on,

Also a group of countries with the same system/ currency does not work most of time.

Also it would mean the end of us running our own ecomeny, it would be run in Frankfurt, the home of the Central European Bank

Thats some of my view and this will be my last post in any politics thread here.

 

[Wozza]

I just feel its corrupt and not as stable as the pound. I could go on,

Also a group of countries with the same system/ currency does not work most of time.

Also it would mean the end of us running our own ecomeny, it would be run in Frankfurt, the home of the Central European Bank

Thats some of my view and this will be my last post in any politics thread here.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

 

[zefarelly]

Unless you have some hard empirical proof of that id say that is complete bollocks. I remember reading a study around 2000 that took a typical households bills for a month, comparing a English home with a French one. They where the same give or take a couple of quid/euros. for everything that was cheaper in France, somthing would balance it out and be cheaper in the UK.

All told, the cost of living is pretty much the same between the major european countries and the UK. BUT our taxes are lower, so if we where to maintain our cost of living under the Euro, we'd need an instant and substantil increase in salaries straight away.

firstly I dont have proof, I'm just spouting from my own personal experience, what I buy in supermarkets for example, frsh food, not processed rip off shit. I'd agree the cost of living is pretty much the same, although for example a long weekend in France or Belgium for example I find the same or cheaper despite eating out all the time rather than being at home ? again, maybe thats just how I choose to spend my money

I dont agre with the salary raise, why not raise tax, lots of people dont pay enough as it is, this can be offsett by a reduction in duty on everyday items and VAT . . .isnt that more in line with th EU states ? ( I dont know, just guessing !)

 

[CHAPPERS]

Also it would mean the end of us running our own ecomeny, it would be run in Frankfurt, the home of the Central European Bank

Are you sure?

 

[Man of Harveys]

Isn't part of the fun of travelling abroad that you get to use different currencies??

Not particularly...but then I prefer to venture slightly further than the bureaux de change when on holiday.

No disrespect intended but this kind of attachment of "fun" or emotional value to something which, let's face it, no-one has in all honestly ever spent any emotion on before is just a tad silly.

Emotional attachments are crucially important - when you're talking about friends, family, girlfriends, football teams or about tatty old shirts that your girlfriend wants to throw away (if you're a bloke). But I for one really doubt whether anyone has ever really "missed" something as mundane as a certain type of coin.

 

[zefarelly]

acyually I used to love the old five pence piece . . . .the new ones are so fiddly

 

[beorhthelm]

I dont agre with the salary raise, why not raise tax, lots of people dont pay enough as it is, this can be offsett by a reduction in duty on everyday items and VAT . . .isnt that more in line with th EU states ? ( I dont know, just guessing !)

the point was that our taxes *will* go up to conform with those of europe. Europiles often say that other European countries earn more than us, but that ignores the lower taxation in the UK - which is considered by wealthy Europeans to be a tax haven (i kid you not). and reducing duties means those who dont consume those goods have to pay more tax... not going to go down well is it. Thats not to say that i agree with the way consecutive governments have cynically increased duties on the pretence of health/environment. But i do agree with the principle of shifting taxation from direct to indirect sources, that way its my choice.

 

[Wozza]

I wish we'd round prices off to the nearest 5p.

1p and 2p coins are rubbish.

Nobody would miss 'em, and government/companies could make a small killing by rounding everything up.

 

[alan partridge]

I just feel its corrupt and not as stable as the pound. I could go on,

Also a group of countries with the same system/ currency does not work most of time.

Also it would mean the end of us running our own ecomeny, it would be run in Frankfurt, the home of the Central European Bank

Thats some of my view and this will be my last post in any politics thread here.

ecomeny sounds like some kind of 'green friendly' product

I can't believe this will be the last post on politics from our resident politician.

What do they do in Parliament all day? Chat about dance music?

 

[Wozza]

What do they do in Parliament all day? Chat about dance music?

Shhhhh! He's only a pretend politician.

 

[The Large One]

If the Euro was rightly or wrongly supposed to bring about tax harmonisation (be it direct or indirect), how come each member states' taxation level is different? Assuming VAT to be 22% in Belgium, how come it is only 19.6% in France? Why haven't the countries made their tax levels the same? And taxed all items the same? Or are they just about to?

Migratory working patterns would indicate that people would go where the work is. Inwards investment in any productivity/industry over the past 10/15 years in the UK has not necessarily been targetted in the south east. Why would joining the Euro suddenly mean it would automatically come here now?

 

[Beach Hut]

The Euro would be a disaster for the UK on investment and productivity.

Kepp the pound unless the rules change otherwise we will be keeping the majority of Europe in business at our cost.

 

[dougdeep]

NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Also a group of countries with the same system/ currency does not work most of time.

Hmm. Here's a group of countries for you Strike: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Are you saying our system/currency doesn't work most of the time?

Perhaps we should adopt the Euro then!!

 

[itszamora]

Personally I would support us going to the Euro. Europe is potentially an enormous market (bigger than the US) therefore it makes sense for us to align economically with them rather than isolating ourselves totally as the right would like, or even worse continuing to bum the americans (figuratively, of course)

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

ok - i did a section of my German as level about Europe and the Euro, so this is my research that i found out.

Pro's

*It's easier for business people to trade and buy trade. It avoids changing money and loss.

*It's better for tourists and travellers, that have to cross over countries e.g trip to Austria

* A common currency contributes to a European intergration and encourages peace. (important, because in comparison to before, we havent seen a war in Europe in 60 years)

* It provides a counter balance to the $ and American influence in Europe.

* The same currency brings more price transperency in the internal market -> more competition. One can immediately see whether a car, or a litre of petrol is cheaper or more expensive in France or Germany for example.

Cons.

* All will become more expensive. "Euro - teuro" (expensive euro) - Myth or Reality??

* the governments in various countries lose the contol over their own currency, and then through that, their economy.

* The introduction of the Euro is very confusing for older people.

*Opposition politicians in GB have fear, that Brussels, (and now the central bank in Frankfurt) have too much influence and power, and that the national government should decide over the strong economic questions.


i know that my report has a strong focus on Europe as a whole (well i wouldnt concentrate on England in German would i!) I personally think that it would be good to join the Euro, as most of the disadvantages are only short term. The Euro also helps bring such issues as the Schengen agreement, where you can cross the internal borders in europe, without having to go through customs everytime. this also saves time with lorries transporting trade (if you think that it takes 2 hours for the custom officials to check that everything is ok, then if you travel say to spain, there and back it would waste about a day of waiting, and that is a day of pay for the lorry drivers, for doing precisely nothing!) and time is money.