A bitter irony

[Angelus3K]

Quick Note: Angelus why do you like the pound so much more than other currency? Is it simply because you grew up with it? to be honest I think the metric system is the best just because it's so simple. Can you tell me how many feet are in a mile? I can tell you how many meters are in a kilometer. and there's 100cents in one dollar and hell if I know how the pounds work. Celsius to Farenhiet?....I won't start that. Grams to pounds now true I tell people my weight is 120pounds but that's only cause no one knows what 55kg means.

Yea it is because I grew up with the pound and if we changed over to the Euro I would be like right I have 60 Euro.... uh how much is that in £. Or oh the PS3 is 500 Euro's is that cheap/expensive? I have to see what it is in £ etc.

I dont know how many feet are in 10 feet never mind a mile. I grew up with metric measurements so I use them anyway. Although strangely I use things like centimetres and metres but I prefer to miles for larger distances simply as I dont know how far a kilometer is.

There is 100 pennies in a pound same as there is 100 cents in a dollar.

I use Celsius btw  ;)

We use imperial for weight as in 10st 2 pounds. but we dont say 120 pounds, there are 14 pounds in a stone so we would say 8st 6 pounds etc

[Angelus3K]

News update!!

62% of Dutch people have just voted No!

Way to go Erpy  ;)

[Erpy]

I actually voted for the European constitution. That said, I dislike the idea of a referendum for these kinds of things. I think it's safe to say about 85% of all votes were uninformed. (mine probably included, I missed a large part of the hype while I was staying in the US)  This is like asking a person who never touched electronic devices in his life to buy new parts for your computer. He'll just end up making his decision on what box he thinks looks prettiest.

[Heimdall]

I agree pretty strongly with Erpy on this one.

Much of the 'debate' on the European Constitution in the UK has been media spin; the more conservative newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, make the EU out to be a petty, pedantic organisation whose sole purpose is to make life as difficult for the British taxpayer as possible.  Unfortunately, our government does very little to counter this argument.

As a law student whose main focus has been issues of european law, integration and study of the Constitution (my degree course is European, International and Comparative Law), it is a disappointment to me to see the Constitution defeated in two countries, and the desparation of some to declare it 'dead'; to me, the Constitution was a fine-tuning of existing law in the EU, with all the various treaties being turned into one document.  It also (despite the claims of the popular press) gave the 'average citizen' a greater voice in Europe, by strengthening the role of the European Parliament into something with almost as much power as the Commission and Council.  As things are, with the Constitution in it's uncertain state, we are left with the status quo; ironic, really.

[PValiant]

I'm very disappointed and frustrated as well. It's annoying to see people voting on such a delicate and important subject without having any clue about the issue. There are so many people with unbelievable unrelated reasons to vote no.

The averange citizin does not have the time to actually read about such an issue and masses of people can easily be convinced with popular yet unrelated motivations.

Yesterday, some friends and i toasted on the loss of democracy in the Netherlands. Especially when the loosing politicans said this no majority was supposed to be a victory of the democracy and said they wanted to use these referenda more often

[Pidgeot]

The problem is not so much a lack of time as it is a lack of simplicity. Nowadays, politics is far too complex a field for average Joe to comprehend.

I'm currently reading through the Wikipedia article on the constitution in hope that I will be able to make a decision. But since many people don't, they might only be hearing the bad points of the constitution, depending on media coverage.

EDIT: Okay, done reading.

Although there are parts I dislike (this might be due to me not fully understanding those parts), I'm not really opposed to the constitution as such. I'd probably vote yes - of course, with the results from France and the Netherlands (even though the latter was consultative, not binding), that may not become an issue.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

gee Angelus your system is all over the grid.  :lol but if you want to know how big a kilometer is just think that a meter is your average walking stride so a kiilometer is 1000 steps on average. I never thought of the whole you have nothing to compare to if you used euros and I wasn't aware of 100 cents a pound although both should have been obvious but hasn't currency changed before? you know longer carry 2 pence half penny while your friend has a pound and 3 shillings you carry pounds and cents a euro I'm assuming would be a simmilar transition. I've often heard that the most logical system is always the most useful.

[Alliance]

The whole idea of Europe going to one kind of currency eerily reminds me of the Left Behind books (which are 100% accurately based on the book of Revelations)
Soon, there will be a one world currency, and then the antichrist would make it none. None as in "You have to take the mark of the beast to buy or sell anything, otherwise you get beheaded." And if you do take the mark, you go to hell. You people probably think I'm nuts, but it's specifically in the Bible.

[Heimdall]

There are a lot of things in the Bible that could theoretically point towards Apocalypse and end times, it's all down to interpretation and viewpoint.  Theoretically, the uniting of the various states of America into the country of the United States of America and having one single currency rather than various different kinds could have been the same sign.  ;)

[Angelus3K]

Yea we did used to have shillings and stuff but that was way before I was born. I've always used pence and pounds and I cant see that changing.

The english public are stubborn I dont see the Euro penetrating the main stream average Joe anytime soon.

[Klytos]

The whole idea of Europe going to one kind of currency eerily reminds me of the Left Behind books (which are 100% accurately based on the book of Revelations)

Very good books, but you can't claim that they are 100% accurate. It all depends on what you believe when it comes to endtimes doctrine. For example, a fundamental flaw in the series (in my opinion) is that non-Jews can be "saved" after the rapture.