With the pound hitting a new record low against the Euro, the exchange rate is almost down to 1:1.  How about the UK now considering joining the Euro?

Think of the advantages:

- unlike other countries that had conversion rates with four figures after the decimal point, the UK could just switch over without the need for conversion and just simply change the pound sign to a Euro one

- people would not have to work out how much something was “in pounds”, as many people on the continent still do when buying expensive items, as this would not be necessary

- it would no longer be necessary to exchange money when going on holiday to the Eurozone countries

- the two currencies could co-exist side by side for a while, removing the need to suddenly print and mint lots more Euro notes and coins

Of course, the euro-skeptics would be totally against this idea.  But why?

- because we are proud of the pound?  Well, let’s be proud of the Euro instead.

- because we want the Queen’s head on our coins?  No problem, mint the Euro coins with her head on the national side (as do Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Vatican City)

- because we don’t want to give up control of our currency?  Well, at the moment some analysts suggest that it is the difference in interest rates between the Bank of England and the European Central Bank that is the reason for the pound’s loss of value.  So why not join in and solve the problem?

Go on United Kingdom, take the plunge.  Or am I missing something here?

There were times when I felt that the internet technology in Germany was far more superior to that in the UK.

Whilst many households in Germany have ISDN lines, the technology is widely unknown in the UK - even for many small businesses.

Broadband arrived earlier in Germany than the UK.  Whilst I was going online with almost 1MBit, most UK internet surfers were still using 56k modems.  By the time 1MBit was on offer in the UK, German providers were offering 6MBit.

For a long time now I have been able to listen and watch selected TV and radio programmes from German public service broadcasters, and more recently some private ones, yet the BBC iPlayer has only been out since the end of last year.

Now, it seems, the UK has not caught up, but has overtaken Germany!

A report in the Telegraph states that the average person in the UK spends just over 4 hours per week longer online that the average German.  Working so much on websites I would probably buck that trend, but does the average Brit really spend 14 hours per week online?  Do they really spend 3 times as many SMSes per month?

But then, what counts as online?  Surfing the web is probably obvious, but does sending an E-mail count?  Am I really online at that point?  Surely that depends on the type of E-mail that I use.  Webmail is online, but how about IMAP accounts that synchronise with their servers?  Or company Exchange servers that are online even when their users are not?

What about Skype?  I know that my computer is online when I use Skype to make a telephone call, whether it be to another Skype user or to a landline, but surely that’s different type of ‘online’?

The gap may be about to widen even more, with the announcement that BBC 1 and BBC2 are to be streamed online.  Unfortunately this will only be available to viewers in the UK (why can’t they allow us ex-pats to subscribe to them as well?!)  But although there are similar services for some channels in Germany, they are not directly from the broadcaster themselves.

This is, of course, wonderful news for students with broadband access.  Now they no longer need to fit a television set and computer into their rooms (do they still have those 2 amp sockets?) but can watch online.  Online?  Are they really ‘online’ when they are only watching their favourite soaps?  That should push up the online statistics a bit more.

Which just leaves the question of whether those same students will still need to buy a television license to watch the channels on their laptops.  In Germany they would…

You don’t encounter that many British troops in Germany these days, at least not in my part of the country.

This week I read an article about troops in northern Germany leaving after 63 years, and it brought back memories of the life in the 1980s, when there were many more of them here.

I remember…

- cars with number plates with red borders, showing that they had been registered overseas

- listening to BFBS during visits to Germany

- encountering members of the British forces on the ferries between Dover and Zeebrugge, returning to their basis after time in the UK

- it being perfectly normal to meet members of the British forces when out and about in German towns

Can you imagine that happening today?  In today’s security climate I can’t image troops travelling in uniform in specially-marked cars and going shopping without putting on civilian clothes first!

Germany was close enough to home to go on holiday to, and thus troops were not so far away from home, a situation that the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq unfortunately can’t enjoy.