AndrewEE

No, even though I consider some views as "old" and "old-fashioned" I would never get that personal as to say that you cannot be young. I do not want to offend. I mean, we are discussing a matter here. I daresay, forgive me, that many young people who are against everything get wrong information. How can any young woman or man, of 20 years, know what this change would mean? If all they know comes only from a points of view, rather than from facts. (A dangerous comparision but true: in Palestine children go through streets with machine guns, because they are told to hate Israel).

And arrogancy would be if I considered my views as final. I do not. I am able to learn, I am 46 years old, so not a youngster either, and old enough to know what I am saying.

I am not a party member, I hope you forgive me that. I am a normal voter.

But I am not looking to anti-anything that is EU - things. I am trying to get my eyes opened or to open eyes with my views.

Are they that wrong? I don't think so. I have experience with such things, as i lived in The Netherlands during the Guilders to Euro transition period. I lived there working for an international British company in Maastricht. So I know exactly what I am talking about. And I can tell you honestly, again without wanting to hurt your feelings or so, that anything to do with euro has not been half as bad as you make it here. It was a change, yes. But that was forgotten after a week or two. Some stupid businessmen wanted to make the big quick money, yes. but as a whole? Nothing. And that would be in the UK, too. And Maastricht is close to Belgium and Germany.

I do not plead you to change your mind, I am just adding a view. Insider view, but personal. And I am not attacking your pride of being what you are.

Be sure I read everything carefully, and I understand. I am somehow even happy that you discuss things. I mean, even being ogf a different opinion in one thing does not exclude agreeing with something else.

Jonathan Arnott

You brought up the issue of the euro, not me. We were discussing the EU Reform Treaty on this thread.

Britain joined the ERM (the euro minus notes and coins) and it was an unmitigated disaster, forcing us to leave. If you want Britain to join the euro then you need a better argument than 'Holland seems to be doing okay, even if Germany and Italy are struggling'. You need to tell me why you think that the British economy should be run by the European Central Bank, not the Bank of England.

Let me put it to you another way: Leaving aside the euro issue, do you think that the Bank of England should immediately cut interest rates seven times?

You'd struggle to find anyone at the BoE who thinks that they should even be cut once.

ANGLO-STAFFS

Welcome AndrewEE.
You will get that a lot from some of the big boys on this forum.