What about those pommie rabbits that crept into Australia, Sport?
Posted on 08/09/2009 3:40:26 PM PDT by Jonny foreigner
For anyone wondering what to do with a couple of 20 euro notes stuffed in their sock drawer and no holiday in sight on the Continent, there may be a simple answer - spend them in the UK.
From the south coast of England to a Birmingham nightclub and a major high street retailer to Edinburgh's Royal Mile, substantial numbers are saying yes to the euro.
Quite where this trend began is in dispute.
Dunster, a medieval village in Exmoor, lays claim to being the first place in Britain to accept euros on a par with the pound - not a bad deal with the exchange rate hovering around 85p to a euro.
"There are no banks in the village, no bureau de change - I think we're giving them a service," says Antony Brunt, Dunster hotel owner and chairman of Exmoor Tourism Association.
Some economists may call Dunster's retailers foolish but what villagers have done is regarded by others as savvy marketing. The move has not gone unnoticed internationally, with Dunster (population: 860) featuring on French TV, in a leading German magazine and being visited by a Japanese news agency.
Mr Brunt thinks this interest has been piqued by people wanting to see evidence of Britain looking to the future.
"There's got to come a time when Britain adopts the euro, whether in five or 50 years' time," he suggests.
Could the seeds have been sown for a much wider unofficial movement?
Professor Iain Begg of the European Institute at the London School of Economics is doubtful.
"These are local gimmicks," he says. "If you are the tourist officer for Bournemouth and you can say 'you can pay in euros', it gives you a bit of an edge...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Doubt it.
Yeah, and there are plenty of vendors throughout Canada who take U.S. currency (sometimes for a fair exchange), that doesn’t mean that Canada is going to adopt the U.S. dollar. England is next door to an economy as much larger than it by itself as the U.S. is to Canada, so of course some retailers will cater to that population.
We here stateside sometimes seek out vending machines that take Canadian quarters so we can get a bit of a deal.
I eagerly await some stable private currency that will replace the Obamaloon (er, dollar) as it begins its inevitable slide into being worth about much as the president’s one-celled brain.
i agree. looks like this is made for tourists. (i did know that some big shops in london do accept the euro because of that) but then again in times of “plastic” money it´s no big deal anyway because your credit card will by you everything anyway :-)
but in personal i would love it if the UK would invent the euro. it would be so much easier for me (i often spend time in london) to buy something without doing the math everytime i buy something in converting the price from pound into euro :-)
Legal on-course bookmakers take action based on euros at horse racing tracks in England; as there are horsemen and fans from Ireland and France at the races there, it makes good sense for them to do that.
And the same in American border communities where the loonie is often accepted at par as a means of generating more business.
believe me i was against the euro (the time they introduced it) but right now (even “we” felt a real increase in price “but allso the income has been raised”) i really like the euro. if you live in Europe and you like travelling it´s perfekt.
What about those pommie rabbits that crept into Australia, Sport?
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