Now it's one and a quarter will fashion outlets need to reprint all their price labels?

By Mik Barton on May 6, 08 10:49 AM in Economics

I'm tempted to visit the High Street today just to see if shop assistants are busy ripping price labels off clothes - or perhaps they are busy at work with a biro changing all the figures?

It's the sort of idle curiosity that overtakes me after I spend a certain amount of time watching (and occasionally helping) my wife shop for the latest fashions.

Quite a few of the High Street chains have labels showing the price in both pounds and euro. When I spot a good exchange rate the devil in me has always wanted to go up to the checkout and demand to pay in the currency used by most people in the EU. (Of course, at the moment, there's fat chance of me spotting a favourable exchange rate)

Until recently the rough conversion familiar with business and holidaymakers has been to multiply the pounds by one and a half, then sometimes knock off a bit. The official rate may have been 1.45, but for working it out in your head it's been around one and a half for years.

Today I noticed the little currency gadget on my desktop showed a rate of £1=€1.2697. So I guess calculations in my head will now have to get used to a pound being one and a QUARTER euro. That's quite a psychological shift.

In business terms I hope it will balance out. If I'm paying people working with me in mainland Europe I have to pay them more. On the other hand, when I get paid in euro, I earn more. But this currency fluctuation adds a level of uncertainty that I could do without.

Isn't it time we opened up the debate about euro membership again? Even if it's only to make life less complicated for shop assistants (they have enough on their plate keeping a lookout for angry Post bloggers)