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ARTICLE SUMMARY
Brown ready to swap pound for EuroGordon Brown was last night facing embarrassing new questions about his involvement in secret talks to scrap the pound. 
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All rights reserved. By viewing this site you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
A SHORT ESSAY I AM WORKING ON. NOT YET FINISHED!
04.05.09, 4:11pm
The Great British Pound
The Great British Pound is an iconic currency that has survived for an expected seven hundred and nine years, making it the oldest currency still in use throughout ten countries. These include not only all eight British territories including Britain but also Zimbabwe and South Africa who use other currencies alongside.
The spread of the British Pound was helped through the expansion of the British Empire. The Pound has recently been under threat from the Euro, but it has so far withstood the European Union attempting to dissolve the use of the currency.
This essay is looking for an explanation as to why this artefact has survived for this length of time and what it means to Great Britain as a sign of our patriotism. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the Pound was thought to originate from the Normans in 1300ad, this was made of two hundred and forty pennies which later became one hundred after the decimalisation in 1971. The term pound was thought to originate from the use of a pound of silver in weight. The sign of the GBP is £ which was derived from a capital L, standing for Librum, a Roman unit of weight which had derived from the Latin word for scales.
The Pound can be a simple currency used every day by almost everyone in Britain, this can make it a mundane artefact that everyone recognises but no one truly loves. This however, can become reversed when it is placed under threat. In December 2008 Gordon Brown had talks with the President of The European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. This quickly heightened the threat to the Pound. The Daily Express had conducted a poll to see whether the public approved and out of “thousands of votes yesterday, with 94 per cent saying Britain should keep the pound. Only six per cent were in favour of switching to the euro.” (The express http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/73968/Brown-ready-to-swap-pound-for-Euro)
The Pound has been Britain’s currency for hundreds of years, the inscriptions and figure heads on the pound represent its national importance, this, evokes patriotism and national identity. The Pound is a symbol, not just an artefact; it is something that is important to our nation. The inscription “decus et tutamen” found on most Pound coins from 1983, meaning “an ornament and a safeguard” prescribes upon us that we should use the Pound as a currency but also a matter of national protection, not necessarily from our enemies but from Globalization or maybe a more apt phrase; Europeanization. Thus protecting our culture and our national heritage.
However, through modernization our currency is threatened. The ever increasing recession is a sign that the Pound is weakening in world markets, there is also an element of value. Have people lost the true value of money? The Pound is no longer in many pockets, more the credit or debit card, this has caused an increasing sense that younger generations will lose their heritage through plastic cards or online banking and shopping. Also through modern technology we have lost sense of earnings, most people are normally paid through the banks with money entering straight into their account. Maybe the recession will be a double edged sword, causing job losses and repossessions but, on a positive level it may make the nation more aware of our currency, its value and above all reinstate the heritage that has been bestowed upon us by our ancestors.
• Posted by: GoldenEngland • Report Comment
BROWN READY TO SWAP POUND FOR EURO
05.12.08, 10:52am
It's well past the time for a revolution! Never underestimate the people!
• Posted by: EnglishMyst
Here Here Well said...
• Posted by: bluesman3 • Report Comment
IT WILL INDEED BE THE WORSE THING FOR BRITAIN!
04.12.08, 11:48pm
It's NOT only been bad for Germany but Ireland, France, and Italy and more than likely all the countries of the EU.
Britain needs to get out now. The LIE-bour government of Brown and his minions do nothing for the good of the country but for the good of their own "privy purses".
Prices will go over the top just as they did when decimalisation was introduced.
The sooner the British people tell the EU to **** off, the better off we'll be!
Britain out of the EU now and Brown and his minions out of Downing Street, Whitehall, and Westminster now!
Return to Scotland! Crikey, where's a "Longshanks" when needed?
It's well past the time for a revolution! Never underestimate the people!
• Posted by: EnglishMyst • Report Comment
IT WILL BE THE WORSE THING FOR BRITAIN..
04.12.08, 12:59pm
...if it adopts the Euro. The German people say it is the worse thing to happen to them when they lost their mark, prices doubled over night. They would have their former currency back tomorrow.
• Posted by: Disgruntled • Report Comment
BROWN READY TO SWAP POUND FOR EURO
04.12.08, 10:10am
Unfortunately the pound is becoming a worthless currency worldwide. Looking at exchange rates the pound is down significantly against all but two. No one out there of worth wants the pound. If I am right in what I am told Brown was given until 2009 to allow us to go in at the rate the others did (65p). If that holds true we should go in now, bite the bullet and do it. I'm sure the notes are already printed,stored in a vault ready for action.
There is not a lot we can do at the moment, politics are soiled now even more with the return of the "dark prince". So long as the "guilable" british people are not taken in by these incompetents near a general election, I can only hope that this utter shambles will be sent into the political oblivion from whence they must never return, dont hold your breath though!! Even Cameron cannot do as much damage as this lot since 1997 - CAN HE?
• Posted by: over21 • Report Comment
BROWN READY TO SWAP POUND FOR EURO
03.12.08, 11:28pm
GORDON "BROON", here's a much better plan, the British people, especially the English people, are ready to swap you for anyone else.
KEEP THE POUND, GET RID OF BROWN!
UNELECTED BROWN AND ALL HIS MINIONS ARE TRAITORS!
Kick him and the entire LIE-bour lot out now!
There has never been a more useless bunch of pillocks in the government previously to the past 11 1/2 years! This lot takes not only the biscuit but the entire box!
KEEP THE POUND, GET RID OF BROWN!
IMPEACH THE TRAITOR(s) NOW!
• Posted by: EnglishMyst • Report Comment
A PERSON THAT MATTERS
03.12.08, 10:59pm
I'm a person that matters because I will be out canvessing for the conservatives at the next election and making sure that Labour mp's are back in the gutter where they belong.
Go play with the funny money up in scotland where you belong Brown and leave our pound alone.
• Posted by: gokhuveg • Report Comment
POLITICIANS ALWAYS WIN THE DAY!
03.12.08, 8:45pm
... I think our eventual foray into the euro currency, will be down to plain old expedience more than a real passion by New Labour to take us further into a european super state. We are getting more obscure as a Nation, as our gold reserves and other assets are stripped away. The only thing we will have left soon, will be the British Pound. We are back, where we were thirty years ago, a bankrupt economy, high unemployment, huge public debt, and worsening economic woes and social decay.
• Posted by: catharguy • Report Comment
KEEP THE POUND...THE EINGLISH POUND!
03.12.08, 8:02pm
The pound is Eingland...Eingland is the pound!!! Don't lie the new labour quislings sell us out to europe.
This country has fort and payed with lives for hunders of years all over the world and in the sky's above Eingland, so we could be free to say what and live in a free country.
Keep the pound and stick the euro, don't let brown and his P.C. gang sell us down the thames.
Fight for the pound and all that is Eingland.
• Posted by: Tinman • Report Comment
EURO
03.12.08, 6:53pm
yet again we only find out by a leaked sourse that we are going to lose the £ This is the second act of treason committed by this government. I do not want to use the euro - I a english and I want to use retain the £1. The promised referendm did not happen and Brown signed away our rights by signing this treaty. He should be charged with an act of treason for what he has done to this once proud nation. I realy wonder why my did gave 6 years of his life helping to fight for the freedom of europe when it has all now been for nothing.
• Posted by: SRM • Report Comment
SUPRISE, SUPRISE.....NOT!
03.12.08, 6:32pm
"The people that matter". These people would no doubt be the Bilderbergers (one world goverment etc.) of whom our recently enobled 'Lord' is a member.
Why do these people bother going through the charade of holding general elections? The country is run by 'other people'.
• Posted by: wiggins • Report Comment
WATCH
03.12.08, 5:57pm
Just watch the cost of living rise as it did when we adopted decimilisation.
• Posted by: RobertG • Report Comment
BROWN READY TO SWAP EURO
03.12.08, 3:45pm
This is so scare mongery for people living in England and also for people living in the eurozone......They are thinking they are going to have half pensions...For goodness sake Mr Brown issue a statement to let them know it is not true.What a time to think about it ,when the rate is so low.maybe in the future when we are back in the normal rate.....Dont sell us down the river or your children come to that,,,
• Posted by: rosieval • Report Comment
TREACHEROUS LABOUR
03.12.08, 2:39pm
Personally speaking I would not believe a word LIABOUR say,they will do all they can to sell this NATION to the UNDEMOCRATIC EU
• Posted by: TIPTONTAMP • Report Comment
BROWN READY TO SWAP POUND FOR EURO
03.12.08, 1:58pm
The quicker we adopt the euro the better. The only people who benefit from keeping the pound are the banks who charge us commission every time we change currencies.
• Posted by: skg • Report Comment