h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tomorrow maybe not, six weeks time at the end of campaign that would highlight the fact both pro & against I think it would be yes - the thing is even people who don't want it seem to accept that it will happen.

I think some people are quite naturally averse to change, and changing the currency standard has to be right up there as one of the larger social changes a peaceful government can impose on average citizens. The real question is whether this is enough to push other concerns like education, environment, and so on to the side of the plate come voting time. Here in America, it likely would. But in Britain where international interest is much higher, I'm not so sure.

Come the general election, what you have to realize is all those things are connected to Europe, in many of these areas are bound up with the Europe question, the European legislative has great power in many of these areas.

As for the Euro ( ) all UK parties have said that its introduction to the UK will be subject to a referendum, its just some parties are more keen to hold that referendum than others.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A528103 go read...

what will happen to this thread come european elections ?

Going back to Uk pros and againsts, I think a lot of major businesses and so on are for the Euro- perhaps more than let on.
The problem is the vast majority of people not directly affected by european trade who wil be voting in the referendum but whose only knowledge of Europe is the negative views perpetrated in the gutter press.
Jumping on stories like the whole 'bendy banana' thing, as is their wont, only distorts people's view of what really goes on. If we're to get into Europe we have to get in decisively, and educate people better as to what the EU is all about and, perhaps most importantly, why it all began in the first place.

Sorry. What 'bendy banana' thing?

The one where everyone moaned at the EU for being too bureaucratic (which I admit it is) based on the fact that they'd made a ruling about how straight bananas should be.

It was probably just one of a whole bunch of regulations designed to create some standards for packing goods, and the press dived in, picked it out and made an example of it.

Yes, I admit it does sound quite silly.

It was, thats why it never made it into law.

Ah, I never did find out what happened to it.
Still, that example was intended to highlight how the media, partic. newspapers, distort our views of the EU and its laws.

I would say that, unfortunately, the Euro-sceptic media are not so much distorting people's views as pandering to many people's gut instinct to resist change of any kind. In other words, the media are only part of the problem. They wouldn't get away with pandering to that fear if it wasn't there in the first place.

The bigger problem, I feel, is that we have a distorted view of the democratic process itself. Doesn't it undermine the authority of a government if, once elected, we then expect them to come running to us every time there is a 'politically loaded' decision for them to make? Is it really appropriate that such an important choice should be in the hands of millions of people who (let's face it, this is true for most of us) really know very little about the subject and are hardly qualified to make any kind of judgement on it? Shouldn't the government really be making this kind of decision - after all, that's what we elect them for, to make tough choices for the general good of the country.

While I'm broadly in favour of the Euro, I would accept a 'No' vote in a referendum if I truly felt Britain had made a balanced, informed, decision based on reason rather than reaction. I wouldn't agree with the decision, but if it was rational I would be happy to respect it. But I'm increasingly sceptical about the will of the British people to think this one through at all...

Hear hear.

sorry, but I believe that a yes vote would be the most likly outcome.

I hope so.

Any comments on Gerhard Schroeder's plans for a radical shake-up of the European Union?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1302000/1302982.stm

I'm not quite sure what is meant by a 'European government'. Don't we already have elections for a Euro parliament in Brussels - ie, the ones that none of us here in Britain ever bother to vote in. Is Schroeder just talking about making it more powerful? That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing in itself, although I suppose it's grist to the mill for those who suspect Germany of federalist leanings.

The article says "The European Parliament would gain supervision of the European budget, including massive agricultural spending." Well, shouldn't it be doing that already? I mean, who or what organisation is presently supervising the European budget, if not the flipping Parliament? Or is it true, as I sometimes suspect, that the economy is really too important to be left to the politicians?...

At the moment, a lot of power is invested in 'Council of Ministers' the E.U.'s executive arm.

NB: you can get the full text of the speech by following the link to the German Foreign Office from the BBC News page mentioned a couple of post back.

re: cloning

There are a number of people currently trying to clone humans - check out some of these links, all about the same US/Italy collaboration:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1143000/1143655.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1144000/1144694.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1209000/1209716.stm

It makes a lot of sense to have the legislation in place *before* the technology, rather than trying to play frantic catchup, as happened with, for example, the internet.

re: "bendy banana"

This was (apparently) a ploy to basically get rid of imports of bananas from places like South America, by putting requirements on them that they couldn't meet. Hence safeguarding EU farmers, who clearly need the help. As mentioned, it got scrapped.

I wasnt aware that E.U. farmers produced a great deal of bannanas..?