Posted on 07/02/2002 10:26:51 AM PDT by kattracks
LONDON (Reuters) - Anti-euro campaigners in Britain have co-opted Adolf Hitler into their latest advertising campaign.
Actor Rik Mayall, dressed as the Nazi dictator and mimicking his famous salute, declares: "Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Euro," in a cinema spot due to be launched this month.
Answering questions at the campaign launch on Tuesday, campaigners denied that the Hitler sketch could offend.
"Anyone who doesn't laugh, I think, should get a life," said another of the advert's stars, Labour Member of Parliament Kate Hoey.
"This is going to reach people who, quite frankly, politicians aren't getting through to," she added.
Ageing rocker Sir Bob Geldof and restaurateur Gordon Ramsey are also among the celebrities, businessmen and politicians who feature in the advert to be shown in cinemas for three months from July 12.
"It's not anti-European to be against the euro," Geldof says in the advert.
The all-party "No" campaign argues that jumping on the euro bandwagon would be bad for the British economy. Their slogan is "Europe yes. euro no".
Campaigners said in the film they had tried to get across the idea that the euro is undemocratic and not inevitable.
Responding to the "No" campaign's advert, Simon Buckby of the pro-euro "Britain in Europe" lobby said: "We always knew the anti-Europeans were a joke and now they've turned into a bunch of comedians."
Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to assess five economic tests by the middle of next year to judge whether joining the single currency would be in Britain's economic interests.
A final decision will be put to a referendum.
Anti-euro sentiment in Britain hit its highest level this year in June, according to the latest Barclays Capital survey. Of those questioned, 49 percent were against joining, up from 46 percent in May. Only 36 percent favoured joining.
(20 pts. for naming this obscure reference)
(If this comment makes no sense to you, you really need to be watching "Black Adder.")
FMCDH
FMCDH
Good answer!
Yeah, those Hitler jokes always crack me up.
"You need to treat your kite like you treat your woman"
"You mean take her home to meet your mother"
"No! Get inside her five times a day and take her up to Heaven and back!"
SD
Bod Geldof too, for that matter.
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