Ministry of Propaganda - 15/Jul/2004: "Kind of a Euro rant"
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Kind of a Euro rant
A couple of days after the European Parliamentary elections (in which I wasn't able to vote due to a mistake in the electoral register) I find it interesting to read some of the results and reactions. And an event today again highlights the need for the UK to join the EURO to me.
As someone in the BBC "Have your say" comments points out, Mr Kilroy-Silk plans to waste taxpayers money to only go to Brussels when he feels like it and "wreck the parliament". I assume he's not going to forfeit any of the money he's going to get for being an MEP though. And instead of working on improving the parliament and it's work he's just going to complain. Sad.
UKIP also claims the majority of Brits are against the European Union and "want to get their country back". Hm, looks like they are quite bad in maths as well. UKIP had 16.1% of the vote. Considering that the turnout was only 38.2% and that UKIP was probably better in mobilising their voters than most other parties I estimate they would only have 10% (at best) of the total population behind them. And even less in Scotland and also less in Wales. Doesn't look like an overwhelming protest to me, apart from may be the "little Englanders" they claim not to be.
But then being outside of the EU and in particular outside of the EURO has definite "advantages":
For example for Rip-off Britain. Apple just launched their iTunes online store in Europe. For each song they charge 79pence in the UK and 99cents in Euroland. Which means that Brits pay approx EUR 1:20 instead of EUR 0:99 at current exchange rates. Why? Because the shipping costs are higher? What shipping costs? It's a server on the internet, that doesn't make any difference. But because it's more difficult to compare the prices and because a lot of people won't notice (at least not at first). If Apple had to sell in EURO in the UK I think they would find it much harder to explain a price difference, in particular such a big one...
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Entry trivia
- When writing this entry the weather was: clouding over, cooler than recently. Quite breezy
- When writing this entry I was listening to: BBC Radio Five live
- I'm currently reading/have just finished reading this book/publication: none
- I recently visited this website/-page: Allesaussersport
- The last drink I had was/is: Tea
End of entry trivia
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