Joan Collins
The news that political heavyweight Joan Collins is backing the UK Independence Party reminds me of her stunning intervention into European politics last summer.You may recall that she gave an impassioned argument against the euro because it had increased the price of living on the notoriously cheap Cote d'Azur by 30%, specifically dinner in her local bistro.
Oddly enough the local inflation indices suggested prices had risen on average by 5%, or maybe a little more for service goods.
So what was she on about? Suddenly I realised. Collins referred to the price of dinner in sterling. She doesn't understand that sterling is not the currency of the euro area. Once you realise this, and that sterling had fallen against the euro by nearly 20% since Jan 1 2002, the mystery is solved.
In other words it was because we HAD NOT joined the euro that her local bistro meal was more expensive, not because they HAD joined it. How stupid can you get?
posted by Matthew @ 5/26/2004 03:42:00 PM
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