Word: poundings
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...station is London's new, hip gateway to Europe. Thanks to a recent billion-dollar refit, passengers awaiting high-speed trains to Paris or Brussels can sip champagne at the continent's longest bar, or eat oysters and caviar at a fine-dining restaurant. With the value of the pound plummeting, though, Britons heading to Europe are not exactly in a celebratory mood. Trips to Paris used to involve "a stroll around the shops to see if I could pick up some nice Parisian fashion," grumbles Jemima, a 35-year-old sales professional on her way to the French capital...
...strength of the pound has long been a source of British pride - the word "sterling" has come to describe something of the highest standard. When the pound plunges, as it did in 1976 and in 1992, the damage to the British psyche is almost as far-reaching as the impact on the economy. And right now sterling's losing its shine. In the past year, the U.K. currency has lost about a fifth of its value against the euro, the currency used in much of the rest of Europe, and 30% against the dollar. Causes aren't hard to come...
...That feeling of impending doom is speeding the collapse in sterling's value, and prompting renewed discussion about whether Britain should ditch the pound for the euro, which this month celebrated its first 10 years...
...British public, long a Euro-skeptic bunch, are having none of it. According to a January poll by ICM for the BBC, 71% of Britons remain opposed to adopting Europe's single currency; more than two-thirds said the pound's slide made no difference to their thinking. "There's a long sentimental attraction to a coinage that has been around for such a large part of our history," says Nicholas Mayhew, a professor of monetary history at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. "I'd be surprised if all that is lost in a matter of months...
...into the highest echelons of the British establishment. These are the potential byproducts of an agreement reached on Jan. 21 by Russian oligarch and politician Alexander Lebedev to buy London's largest newspaper, the Evening Standard, from its current owners Associated Newspapers for the nominal fee of one pound sterling...