[Romantic Old Bird]

cc, have you been over to Europe since the Euro came in? It's fantastic, no messing around.

In 1990 we drove to Italy and had to get: French francs, Swiss francs and Italian Lire. The mental calculations were mind blowing. We ended up topping up with petol and sweeties at every border on the way back to spend up.

Since the Euro I've been to Holland France Belgium Italy Ireland, and I can use the same dosh. Great.

It has had no effect whatsoever on these countries sense of individuality. Macdonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Cafe Nero etc are the real threats to or national identity. They are in every country you visit. And guess what? They are all US multinational companies.

I'm all for the Euro presenting a real challenge to the monopoly of the American Dollar.

We need to change. If we hadn't changed we'd still be using the groat, or bartering.

We had a european currency in the past - the Florin was used in England and the Low countries - sovereigns and crowns were international in the past. Most money is virtual anyway.

What is so great about the pound??