OK, the title of this thread is a pun.

Kalleh brought home some coins in her change-purse, including British one-pound coins. On their edges (by "edge" I don't mean the farthest-out part of the obverse or reverse; I mean it as in "stand the coin on its edge") I noticed words incised into the milling on their edges.

Some say, "Nemo me impune lacessit," and some say, "Decus et tutamen."

What do these mean?

There are several different inscriptions on pound coins, depending when they were issued and which country's design is used. "Nemo me impune lacessit" is used on the Scottish pound coins and is the motto of the Order of the Thistle. The Order of the Thistle represents the highest honour in Scotland, and it is second only in precedence to the Order of the Garter. The date of the foundation of the Order is not known, although legend has it that it was founded in 809 when King Achaius made an alliance with the Emperor Charlemagne. A literal translation of the motto is "No one provokes me with impunity".

"Decus et tutamen" appears on a number of coins. The phrase translates as "An ornament and a safeguard". It is, of course, referring to the inscription being a safeguard against counterfeiters.

The Welsh coin has "Pleidol wif I'm gwlad", "True am I to my country", which comes from the chorus of the Welsh National Anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhdau".

It was really strange seeing all the different money in the UK and Europe. I spoke to an older Italian who said he still has to calculate the money in liras and then in Euros. Considering all that European history, I surely can understand why the Brits didn't want to change their money.

[Yes, yes, I know you Brits don't like to be considered Europeans, but I am afraid the geographists would disagree.]

The United Kingdom is part of Europe as the USA is part of the Americas.

However, many of us do not feel we have a great deal in common with certain other European nations in much the same way as US nationals probably do not feel they have all that much in common with, say, Mexicans - who occupy the same continent as do they.

Just as is the case with the USA and other American countries, we in Britain have a different language, currency and national ethos from other European countries and most of us would prefer to keep it that way.

Richard English

Well, I'm a convinced European. Although Britain has a different language from the other European states (excluding Ireland, of course) what you have to remember is that most of them have different languages from one another, too.
English, however, is such a mongrel language that it's difficult to find a language from any country in the world, let alone the European Union without representation in English, so perhaps one should look upon English as the ultimate Esperanto.

It is less than two years since the Euro came into effect; before that, every nation state within the European Union had its own currency as well.

I think given becoming the 51st state of the USA¹ or having monetary ties with Europe,² most Britons would vote for the latter.

1. If you knew all the treaties and "understandings" in force between the USA and the UK, you would realise that that's closer than you imagine.

2. Which European country did not benefit from the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War? Yes, the United Kingdom.

Oh, I'd love to see England become our 51st state!

We talked about this subject over a beer when Kalleh came over to London.

I may not want to be the 51st State of America but just as certainly I don't want to be part of the "United States of Europe".

Before anyone jumps in with a denial that this is the European intention let's look at something interesting - in a psychological and semantic way.

We joined "the Common Market".

Who could object to joining something as innocuous as a trading association which is what the name clearly implies?

Before too long the name turned into the "European Economic Community".

This is certainly a little more formal and arguably a little more pompous but essentially means the same thing.

Rather more insidious was the removal of the word "Economic" leaving us as a member of the "European Community".

Subsequently what was a community mutated into a union "The European Union" or "EU".

It doesn't take a genius to see what is happening. It's the Orwellian scenario of controlling the population by controlling the language.

It can surely only be a few more steps at most to create the "United States of Europe" or "USE".

Disregarding the treaties, the political legerdemain, the deviousness, the spin and the downright lies from assorted Governments, a simple examination of the name changes shows where all this is leading.

--------------------------------------------------

On a related topic a columnist in my local paper suggested the day after the Swedish referendum on the Euro that the Government would never hold the promised referendum in Britain.*

I think he's wrong.

I think they will hold it, lose, declare it invalid, hold it again, lose, declare it invalid again and go on this way until they batter the British people into voting "yes" and accepting what very few people actually want.

(* I'm not sure how much of this the US readers will know about. The "Euro" is a common European currency which has already replaced, among many others, the Franc, the Lira and the Deutschmark and is intended to become the only currency in all member states. Last week Sweden held a referendum on whether the people wanted to join. The result was that the people didn't want to join. We haven't joined but our Gevernment would like us to. They have in the past promised a referendum though whether or not this ever actually happens remains to be seen.)

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

[This message was edited by BobHale on Sat Sep 20th, 2003 at 4:10.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Oh, I'd love to see England become our 51st state!

---

Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Don't-talk-about-the-beer! Ooooooooooooh!

(Life isn't easy being me!)

I can understand how sad it must make you feel that you just aren't able to "chat over a beer" in the way that we do in England.

Never mind. Just try to grin and bear it; we'll understand and sympathise.

Richard English