Banning Disguises In Public

Our "pub" where you can post about things completely Off Topic or about non-silent PC issues.

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Erssa
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Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:26 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Erssa » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:22 am

Ok, really off topic, and maybe there already is a better topic for this, but meh...
andyb wrote:Having stayed out of the Euro when most other countries joined, many of us were very happy, as loads of countries had serious financial problems, the majority were sorted out with 12 months, but the value of the Euro has barely changed since its introduction compared to the £ and as such there is still no compelling reason to change to the euro.
It would make it much nicer for me to come visit your country, if there wasn't for the hassle with the currencies. The same goes for you in reversal.
From a purely financial viewpoint it would actually have made more sense to use the US$ instead of the Euro, as we have more financial dealings with the US than the whole of Europe, (but only from a financial standpoint, things change when we talk about goods).
Maybe, if you want to tie your future to that of the USA.
Using the euro instead of the £ would give the UK far less fredom, and would bring our country a step closer to "Euroland" with a central government.
With the loss of your own currency your government would lose the monetary policy tools, but in contrast your financial politics and income politics would become more effective, because I dare to say that Euro is more stable in both value and interest rate then Sterling. Not much freedom lost here. Considering the "freedoms" you get.
Not a single country in Europe (except France) wants one government (andthe French only want this because they miss Napolean who wasnt French anyway).
The French rejected the European Constitution...
Every government has its own freedom to do whats best for every country. this would be like the US removing the rights of each State, and giving every State the same set of rules, and no self control. Chaos would ensue, and the Americans have a lot of guns :lol:
Your first two sentences contradict each other. It's more like having state laws and federal laws. But I have to agree European parliament has passed and will pass stupid laws. But having unified laws for trade or for the internet is a good thing.

Imagine, if all of the States in USA had different currency...

andyb
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Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:26 am

I never understood "Proof", and of course Wiki came to the rescue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_%28alcohol%29

Invented by the British, and like "Pints" and every measure after it has been changed by Americans. American use "small pints", not real ones, the Fluid Ounce is the same, but a Pint is only 16 Ounces and not the correct 20, thus a real Gallon is 8 Pints, or 160 Ounces, wheras the "Small Gallon" used in the US is still 8 Pints, but they are small, so its only really 128 Ounces.

Anyway, pretty much no one in the UK uses "Proof" anymore, we have standardised on ABV (Alcohol By Volume).


Andy

andyb
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Post by andyb » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:40 am

Many of your points Erssa are quite valid on the face of it, however the exchange rates has been very good for the UK for a long time now, and beneficial, as we have essentially made money by exchanging it for a weaker currency.

The problem that we have is that when people come here to visit, it costs them money to exchange, and because our currency is stron they loose money. On top of this the UK is a very expensive place to live, especially the south east, and London in particular.

Here is a shocker for you, a 3-bedroom seim-detached house not far from here costs £195,000, thats E288,000, or US$380,000. 80 miles north of here the cost £110,000

EU integration has been talked about for years, and integration is only any good if everyone can agree on the same thing, everyone has the same laws, the same rights etc etc. I dont know of a single European country that has never had a war with its neighbours, every country is still very different, and they want to stay that way. A lot of people want to be governed by someone of their own nationality, and they want their own rules and laws.

What works for the Spanish wont work for the English or the Bulgarians, people on opposite sides of Europe are aggreeing on things that neighbouring countries argue over, this will be the case for a very long time to come.


Andy

Erssa
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Location: Finland

Post by Erssa » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:51 am

andyb wrote:Here is a shocker for you, a 3-bedroom seim-detached house not far from here costs £195,000, thats E288,000, or US$380,000. 80 miles north of here the cost £110,000
New 3-bedroom appartments the size of ~100m2 cost closer to million euros here in Helsinki. Move to the country and the same appartment costs maybe 60-200k. 20m2 single room appartments have rents of ~500 euros and prices of 100k euros here in Helsinki. My sister lives on the countryside 250km north of here. She has a 60m2 appartment with a rent of 240 euros. So it's not a shocker, even though Helsinki ranks "only" the 20th most expensive city in the world, where as London ranks 3rd.

This is also why I don't like the fact that immigrants are all packed in Helsinki at the most expensive appartments in Finland, when the countryside is full of cheap appartments. If they were spread throughout the country, they could integrate or actually assimilate. I wouldn't mind them living in Helsinki, if they paid their own rents... Now they are just causing white flight -phenomen in some parts of the Helsinki, mainly in East Helsinki.

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:58 am

@andyb: I was mislead by my partners writing '72 proof' on the bottle, when I told them it's 72 degrees (Romanian scale).
Actually 72 degrees means about 60% ethanol.
In Bucharest, an 100m2 apartment costs 70-100k euros, depending on location could be even more.

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