Germans trying to kill-off pound

[Home Guy]

BRITAIN will soon be forced to scrap the pound and join the euro, one of Germany?s most senior figures said yesterday.

In a chilling threat to UK sovereignty, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble predicted that all Europe would one day use the single currency. ?It will happen perhaps faster than some in the British Isles currently believe,? he said. His sinister warning followed the emergence of a secret German plan to build a powerful new economic government for the eurozone and block an EU referendum in Britain.

A leaked German foreign ministry memo detailed plans for a new European Monetary Fund. It also claimed the EU?s treaty could be altered to centralise more power without triggering a vote. In a further sign of growing German supremacy within the EU, David Cameron was yesterday rebuffed by Chancellor Angela Merkel in talks over how to tackle the euro crisis.

Last night British opponents of the EU were horrified by the bellicose threat to Britain?s economic independence. Tory MP Peter Bone said: ?I would be happy to have a bet with the German finance minister that the euro will disappear before the pound. It is a completely absurd suggestion that will never happen.?

Fellow Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell said: ?It is a tragedy that a continent of millions of hard-working people is run by clowns like this.? And UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said: ?This German bullying is deeply unpleasant and the sooner we leave the EU the better.? Dr Schauble, who has used a wheelchair since being shot in an assassination attempt in 1990, is nicknamed ?Dr Strangelove? in diplomatic circles. In his astonishing outburst yesterday, he insisted he ?respected? Britain?s decision to remain outside the euro. But he claimed that the UK would ultimately not be able to resist the tide of history.

His warning came amid a furious outpouring of anti-British sentiment in Berlin. Top-selling newspaper Bild asked: ?What is England still doing in the EU?? while another paper branded Britain ?the sick empire?.

Dr Schauble?s remarks came before the frosty meeting between Mr Cameron and Mrs Merkel in Berlin yesterday.

The German Chancellor rejected outright Mr Cameron?s opposition to a new EU-wide financial tax that would have a devastating impact on the City of London. And she refused to be persuaded by his call for the European Central Bank to support the euro. Money markets took a dip after their failure to agree.

Despite smiles and protestations about their close ?friendship?, their awkward body language at a news conference betrayed bitter differences. Last night a YouGov poll for Prospect magazine showed 51 per cent of Britons would vote to leave the EU in a referendum while only 32 per cent would vote to stay in.

[mike]

Doesn't Germany try to conquer Europe every hundred years or so? It's about that time again.

[RicodJour]

That's the closest thing in that stupid article to anything related to home improvement.

And it's also a poorly written article that must have been in one of the rags next to the cash register while you were checking out at the corner store.

R

[RicodJour]

BTW, does this ring a bell? It was from a month ago. "So unless you construct a more appropriate and USEFUL subject line, I will not reward you with relavent discourse and aid. But others here no doubt will overlook your lapse in judgement and effort to be a more responsible usenet citizen and construct your posts with care and intelligence, which includes a useful and concise subject line."

Try following your own advice.

R

[Home Guy]

(...)

Um, in this case what exactly is wrong with the subject line?

The story is about Germany suggesting that the Brittish unit of currency (the pound) will not survive future efforts to fully integrate the european economy, and it was written in such a way to suggest that Germany would even actively try to "kill off" the pound.

So the subject line "Germans trying to kill-off pound" is both concise and accurate for this post.

Now, if you want to argue that the content of the post is off-topic for this group, then you need to be more clear about that.

[willshak]

I thought it was about killing off stray dogs in the shelters. :-) Maybe the P in 'pound' should have been capitalized.

[Higgs Boson]

***Sigh. Grammar Police has to sleep w/eyes open. "Kill- off"" (hypenated) is a noun, but not one the GP has encountered. Whereas "kill off" w/o hyphen, is a verb. (Ex: **** off.) But nevah mind; this is one of the most common injuries done to our virile language.

HB

[gfretwell]

When you put in the extra I and G you are including Ireland and Great Britain. I agree, we thought you were fascists in the 18th century but you are getting better ;-)

[George]

It does seem like "Home guy" and "heybub" are peas in a pod doesn't it?

[Ed Pawlowski]

But there is logic to it. What are the coins made from? A small amount of silver has more value than a larger amount of copper.

Sensible arrangement, even on bills as they change in size.

Can't speak for all of Europe, but in many places, they don't use the smaller coins often. They are good for rounding off, even a couple of Euro on a restaurant tab rather than make change.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Some of similar size are of different materials and therefore of different colors. Some are different shapes.

Presumably you are a citizen of the USA, all of whose paper money is the same size and (more or less) color. How dumb is that!?

Perce

[gfretwell]

We learn how to read our numbers in 1st grade. It is not that confusing.

[Ed Pawlowski]

It is to blind people. Many years ago, I used to deliver groceries to a blind couple. They had to be very careful how the bills were places in sequence so they could use the proper denomination. I handed them change, one type of bill at a time. I also put away some of the canned good for them, peas here, corn there, etc. so they could tell what they reached for.

The different sizes of the Euro bills make a lot of sense for the vision impaired. So does using durable coins for 1 and 2 Euro, instead of using paper that is easily damaged.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

And I could read the numbers and words on the UK coins, quite apart from the fact that they are different sizes and colors/alloys, and some are even different shapes. No two are identical except for the numbers/words.

Perce

[gfretwell]

Germany is not one of the Gs in PIGGS. It is Great Britain ... but maybe they didn't tell you that on BBC. Google it

Only an Englishman can call Ireland fascist.

[gfretwell]

£2>

?2

The US is rapidly becoming cashless. I use a debit card for virtually everything these days if it is more than a couple of bucks ... and what isn't?

[RicodJour]

Which explains your issues with reading. The letters are all virtually identical - unless you look at them!

I am amazed we're still using coins.

R

[Vic Smith]

Funny thing about that is I always want 20 bucks in my wallet. I hardly ever need it because I have a CC, and hardly ever shop in brick/mortar stores. But when I go out I always look for cash in my wallet first. Usually my wife has taken it all. So I yell about it, and she gets some cash back in the wallet.

My wife goes to a lot of rummage stores and uses cash for small purchases, mostly as an aversion to using the CC. That all shows up on the CC statement. She has a cash machine at her work, so it's easy for her to get cash. The other day she was going out shopping and asked me if she could take the 20 in my wallet. I said "No!" Her mistake asking me. She got pissed.

Anyway, I don't know the answer. I still want a 20 in my wallet. Two 20's would be better. And a couple 10's. And maybe a 5 and three singles.

--Vic

[Kurt Ullman]

Actually it isn't. In fact, it isn't PIGGS, it is PIIGS Google it. They are Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain.

[gfretwell]

I usually have between $20 and $40 with me too but I seldom ever use it.