A conversation between Blackadder and Baldrick . . .
(with thanks to Chris and Peppa Tolley and whoever they got this from)
Baldrick: What I want to know, sir, is before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there’s one type of money that the foreign people use. And what I want to know is, how did we get from one state of affairs to the other state of affairs?
Blackadder: Baldrick – do you mean how did the Euro start?
Baldrick: Yes sir.
Blackadder: Well, you see Baldrick, back in the 1980s there were many different countries all running their own finances and all using different kinds of money. On the one hand you had the major economies ofFrance,Belgium,Holland andGermany, and on the other you had the weaker nations likeSpain,Portugal,Italy,Greece andIreland. They got together and decided it would be much easier for everyone if they could all use the same money, have one central bank and belong to one big club where everyone would be happy. This meant that there could never be a situation where financial meltdown would lead to social unrest, crises and wars.
Baldrick: But this is a sort of crisis now isn’t it sir?
Blackaddder: That’s right Baldrick. You see, there was just one slight flaw with this plan.
Baldrick: What was that then sir?
Blackadder: It was complete bollocks.