Scotland For The Euro!

[Patrick]

The Scottish first minister has said the time is right to look again at the option of the UK adopting the euro.

Alex Salmond claimed there was a strong argument in favour of the euro, particularly as sterling declined.

He said that in the short term, shops, restaurants and pubs should accept the euro from foreign tourists.

Now, is he just jumping on a bandwagon? I hope not, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship! Simply by inviting more shops to happily take the currency is the thin end of a very large wedge indeed! Just imagine it - Scotland ends up saturated in Euros and is forced to give up the pound altogether! Although I'm not that mithered about the Pound itself, it would be a shame for Scotland to lose it's version, and if only the Euro was prettier to look at too!

[trubble]

He said that in the short term, shops, restaurants and pubs should accept the euro from foreign tourists.

In the current climate- exchange rate- they should! Northern Ireland have done really well this Christmas from the Euro-laden Southerners. half of their shoppers (or something big like that) have been from the Republic and even the locals are dabbling with shopping in Euros.

I've been up to Enniskillen a few times over the years for my summer holidays and they take Euro there alongside Sterling, they offer the going rate, which banks often don't offer, so the big shops get their Euro without having to go through banks and we get a better or equal rate of exchange, sometimes worse but only marginally and weighed up against bothering to change currency, no problem.

When choosing where to go on holiday it's so nice not to have exchange currency. It's a cheap and short hop from here to Scotland and if they took Euro it would be a big plus for the Irish anyway, and I'm sure other countries too.

Scotland ends up saturated in Euros and is forced to give up the pound altogether!

How? I don' understand how...

And pretty is as pretty does. Towns are pretty when they are well-off. Want people to spend their cash in your town? Make it easy for them.

[Patrick]

Jan 4, 2009 18:42:59 GMT trubble said:

Scotland ends up saturated in Euros and is forced to give up the pound altogether!

How? I don' understand how...

And pretty is as pretty does. Towns are pretty when they are well-off. Want people to spend their cash in your town? Make it easy for them.

I was thinking about the one time Nazi plan to flood England with fake currency to bring down the pound.

Good point! If they take into account the increase in European traffic since the pound has been faltering - they should think about it. As for design, whilst the pound's not much to look at these days, though the £20 note is now quite striking - some of the old Belgian Franc and Dutch Guilders were beautiful notes to look at.

I hope Scotland go ahead with encouraging this, the further snub to England would be enjoyable to see, too!

[Patrick]

Just been reading about a chap in Dublin doing a round trip over here to see friends and pick up some bargains in Aldi. He noted effectively a £20 difference on a Car CD player for instance (so he bought two!) Not to mention nearly a tenner's differnce between UK and Ireland spirits - Interest aroused I went over to www.aldi.ie/ and compared it with their special offer brochure that I picked up not half an hour ago. Makes for an interesting comparison.

www.aldi.co.uk/

Is VAT really 21% in the Eurozone?

[trubble]

Jan 8, 2009 18:24:29 GMT Patrick said:

Is VAT really 21% in the Eurozone?

Yup.

_{(I don't think VAT is a Eurozone thing, it's a country thing - or did you just mean Eurozone as a nick-name for Ireland and I'm being stupid..? )}

[Patrick]

I naively thought that the 21% was what Ireland had had to adopt on joining Europe. If not - Is there anything with less VAT on to counterbalance that? (Naively assuming for assumption's sake here that all countries cost the same to run and therefore for every plus there must be a minus)??

[trubble]

Yes, some things are only 14%, some 5% and some zero.

But 21 is the general figure for luxuries, you need to argue that you're not a luxury to get the exemptions.

But it's not the same rate over the whole of Europe so I don't know why we had to adopt 21% - - - pretty sure we didn't have to.


Things at 21%...

Here you go:

The standard rate of VAT will be increased from 21% to 21.5% with effect from 1 December, 2008. This rate applies, for example, to supplies of motor vehicles, petrol, electrical supplies, furniture, carpets, adult footwear and clothing. The purpose of this leaflet is to outline the implications of the change for VAT-registered traders.

Zero rated goods, such as basic foodstuffs, children’s clothing and children’s footwear and oral medicines, and goods and services subject to VAT at the 13.5% rate such as catering, new houses, construction services and solid fuel are not affected by the change.



Yikes, I forgot about the hike and I exaggerated the 13.5% bracket because I was too lazy to type .5! But now you have the facts.

[Patrick]

You're a ! Ta.

............I take it you'll not be asking questions later! I may find that I have to pop out for a bit.........

[trubble]

Thank God for that. I've reached my knowledge limit.

[riotgrrl]

I have a book which is only 2 years out of date on UK Tax Law sitting on my desk.

I can answer questions as to what the law was precisely 2 years ago if that's any help???

(It has really pissed me off that all the law books I bought and cherished went straight out of date in 12 months. They should keep the law the same for a few years so that I'm right about it for a bit longer.)

[Patrick]

I don't suppose they're cheap either! S'funny how your text books rarely end up on the discount pile in Smiths innit? I remember the first time round at sixth form college and going cap in hand to me Dad for another text book costing only a few pounds short of a tenner. He wasn't impressed! (and that was 1985!)

You'd think all these new Oxfam and Barnado's shops would do a roaring trade in ex- text books - but as you say, if they're out of date there's no point!