I went to school in the 1930s, and it was so simple then, we had pounds, shillings and pence, twenty shillings to one pound, ten shilling notes,(a widows weekly pension .)

Half a crown, (twelve and a half pence now,) a golden guinea (£1 one shilling) then, 240 pennies to a pound, a penny, a half penny, a farthing, a one pound note and if you were a millionaire, you might have a very large white five pound note.

There were, pounds and ounces, inches, miles, yards, you knew where you were with everything.

Now we have Kilometres instead of miles, centimetres Instead of inches kilos instead of pounds, centigrade instead of fahreheit, metric instead of Imperial, litres instead of gallons,currency has been changed to metric.

Now there is going to be the Euro instead of what we have already changed to, will the next thing be driving on the right? I feel that my school days and education were a waste of time as I am having to learn all over again. 8) 8) 8)

Now there is going to be the Euro instead of what we have already changed to

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Not impressed, when did this finally happen. It is easy for me to just use the imperial system anyway, but this is different. Looks like I am getting out my hexes and curses for one Mr. Blair.

I wonder if rendering him mute and unable to write will stop him signing over our national identity, more than he already has done. How I am managing NOT to swear is waaaaaaaaay beyond me.

Moon Maiden

Everyone knows that the Euro is eventually going to happen.
Business is going elsewhere since the Euro is much easier to deal with, and we're losing too much to the foreign market. Plus it's all to do with money, someone will be bribing someone else somewhere down the line of government.

Business will go where there is a strong economy, like the other week when Vauxhall said it will be spending Millions on Ellesmere Port in Cheshire where they have a car factory. Note how its not being moved to France, Germany, China or anywhere else. There are problems for exporters in terms of varyng exchange rates because this means that they are unable to offer their customers a standard price without taking a huge gamble. To me the question is about taxation. I know that Sheffield is benefiting from lots and lots of Objective 1 (or is it 3 or maybe 5) money from Europe, but who will handle our economy?

Of course there are many things that Europe could be doing well with which they aren't. There is one good idea of having the same rules for assylum seekers who want to enter any country in Europe, if they are refused in one then they end up refused in them all, stopping bogus asylum seekers wandering from country to coutnry. These good ideas dont seem to have much of a chance in Europe at the moment though.

The idea of someone else managing our economy doesn't really worry me as we don't have that much say in it anyway. Last year, for instance, Eddie George of the Bank of England said in a speech that unemployment in the North (including, no doubt, Sheffield) was a small price to pay to keep inflation down. The reason for this was to keep house prices in the South East at sustainable levels.

My point being that we no longer have control over our economy so what difference does it make if decisions are made in London or Strasbourg?

Perhaps the answer is a Yorkshire Regional decision making body such as they have in Wales, who knows?

Originally posted by "halevan"

I went to school in the 1930s, and it was so simple then, we had pounds, shillings and pence, twenty shillings to one pound, ten shilling notes,(a widows weekly pension .)

Half a crown, (twelve and a half pence now,) a golden guinea (£1 one shilling) then, 240 pennies to a pound, a penny, a half penny, a farthing, a one pound note and if you were a millionaire, you might have a very large white five pound note.

There were, pounds and ounces, inches, miles, yards, you knew where you were with everything.

Now we have Kilometres instead of miles, centimetres Instead of inches kilos instead of pounds, centigrade instead of fahreheit, metric instead of Imperial, litres instead of gallons,currency has been changed to metric.

Now there is going to be the Euro instead of what we have already changed to, will the next thing be driving on the right? I feel that my school days and education were a waste of time as I am having to learn all over again. 8) 8) 8)

surely metric is easier to understand than imperial. everythings divisible by 10 or 100 in metric so its way easier to work things out, imperial has 12's, 14's, etc, and i cant even remember what boiling point of water is in farenheit, but its easy to remember its 100 degrees and freezing is 0 degrees in centigrade. also metric money is way easier to deal with; no halves or anything, just 100p to a pound. easy. :wink:

im all for metric on some levels, such as pounds, pence, meters, centimeters and so on, but never kilometers instead of miles

and DEFINATLY NOT euros, i'd happily leave the country than use euros

Originally posted by "RPG"

DEFINATLY NOT euros, i'd happily leave the country than use euros

Why, RPG? I don't have a problem with the idea of using Euros - why does it upset you?

Ideally we should have a system of units derived from both metric and imperial. Imperial units were derived largely from measurements of our bodies which means they are easier for us to visualise than metric units (well, I find visualising distances in feet and inches easier than metres and centimetres anyway). Therefore we should have a system based on imperial sizes. Then there's the question of what they should be divisible by. Both 10 and 12 are useful numbers - 10 is easy to multiply by (10, 50, 100...), 12 is easy to divide by (2, 3, 4, 6). Therefore we should develop a numberical system that has 12 numbers between 1 and 10 (one, two, three, ung, four, five, six, stan, seven, eight, nine, ten) and divide our new measurement system by that :)

Originally posted by "Andy"

DEFINATLY NOT euros, i'd happily leave the country than use euros

Why, RPG? I don't have a problem with the idea of using Euros - why does it upset you?

the sheer thought of outsourcing ANY of our powers to a "one size fits all" regime, and thats what it is. the rest of europe wanting to control everyone else (namely brussles)

id rather be the 51st state than be apart of europe.

i like how business say everything will be rosy when we join up, well i can tell you it wont be. companys will STILL outbranch to europe, as the rest of the EU will complain if we dont, or even worse re-locate more of our business to the far east and india.

RPG i couldn't agree more. i hope Blair doesn't get the chance to sell our soul to the EU. also, whilst i prefer metric for everything else, i must admit i find miles easier to deal with than KM, probably because all our road signs are still in miles. anyone know why our road signs have retained the imperial measurements but nearly everything else has got metric measurements on, or at least a combination of both?

Originally posted by "Moon Maiden"

Now there is going to be the Euro instead of what we have already changed to

I wonder if rendering him mute and unable to write will stop him signing over our national identity.
Is moving to the euro a bad thing? Wouldn't the unification of the human race be a more productive way forward in the world. I feel that a single currecy helps us move foreward to getting rid of racism and brings a more universal human race.
Of course I may be talking utter b******s, but the sooner we all start reading from the same page the sooner we can all get along and move the world forward.

Is moving to the euro a bad thing?

Call me a young stick in the mud if you will, But I love my country, I am British and proud. Now for some that makes me racist and that comment seems to be polictically incorrect unless you happen to come from any other country in the world other than Great Britain.

I seriously have to wonder and question what the international desire with Great Britain is (BTW why are we not allowed to call our country Great Britain anymore?). Since the dawn of time cultures have seen fit to move here and conquer and live.

If we are not that special then why don't they - didn't they leave us alone????? If we have nothing to offer the world anymore then why don't they - didn't they leave us alone??

The countries of the world have been after what this small, tiny and insignificant island has for millenia, and now they have found a way to get their grubbies on it. They wipe it's people into the floor, making them believe their country and them are worth nothing and then dupe them into believing they would be much better off with a bigger organisation.

Different information is circulating about what Europe can and can't do for us.
Financially I don't really give a rats arse, I don't assign to that religion anymore and there is no price tag on the British Isles last time I looked.

From my own unquie and personal POV, this whole thing doesn't come down to what europe can and can't do for the British Isles. There is absolutely nothing europe can do for us that we cannot and have not done for ourselves. It comes down to a simple belief in ones self worth.

There was an article on the BBC news this week in which an MP mentioned a move into Europe would spark civil war. No chance is there?? Because the British haven't the balls, Brussels have told them so.

Moon Maiden

Originally posted by "Moon Maiden"

Is moving to the euro a bad thing?

Call me a young stick in the mud if you will, But I love my country, I am British and proud. Now for some that makes me racist and that comment seems to be polictically incorrect unless you happen to come from any other country in the world other than Great Britain.

I seriously have to wonder and question what the international desire with Great Britain is (BTW why are we not allowed to call our country Great Britain anymore?). Since the dawn of time cultures have seen fit to move here and conquer and live.

If we are not that special then why don't they - didn't they leave us alone????? If we have nothing to offer the world anymore then why don't they - didn't they leave us alone??

The countries of the world have been after what this small, tiny and insignificant island has for millenia, and now they have found a way to get their grubbies on it. They wipe it's people into the floor, making them believe their country and them are worth nothing and then dupe them into believing they would be much better off with a bigger organisation.

Different information is circulating about what Europe can and can't do for us.
Financially I don't really give a rats arse, I don't assign to that religion anymore and there is no price tag on the British Isles last time I looked.

From my own unquie and personal POV, this whole thing doesn't come down to what europe can and can't do for the British Isles. There is absolutely nothing europe can do for us that we cannot and have not done for ourselves. It comes down to a simple belief in ones self worth.

There was an article on the BBC news this week in which an MP mentioned a move into Europe would spark civil war. No chance is there?? Because the British haven't the balls, Brussels have told them so.

Moon Maiden
That'll do Donkey, That'll do! :wink:

Well you did ask Bouncer :P

Moon Maiden

Originally posted by "Moon Maiden"

Well you did ask Bouncer :P

Moon Maiden
That wasn't meant as an insult, it was an agreement about some of your points. Nor was it a request to cease your ramblings (not that I thought they were :P ).