Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement

 
 
Tuesday, 14th October 2008

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Sign In
Register

At 30p a time, you'll have to be flush to spend a penny



Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 17 April 2008
By Linda Kennedy
THERE is now something called Glasgow weighting. And to avoid it, I suggest you try Glasgow waiting, if you possibly can. Till you get home, that is.
The Glasgow weighting in question is the extra cost now incurred gaining relief in the city's Central Station. You, used to hunting in your pockets for appropriate coinage, assumed it was 20p, right? Oh, no. Rampant inflation has hit Glasgow's loo l...



The full article contains 963 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 16 April 2008 10:04 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Linda Kennedy
 
1

donald,

glasgow 17/04/2008 03:09:24
Glesga Cooncillors couldnae run a public toilet. They've closed them a' doon years ago, along with all the public drinking wells.
2

EWB,

UK 17/04/2008 06:35:22
"To spend a penny": a wonderful euphemism evocative of the old days when one inserted a large, brown copper penny bigger than a £2 coin today (of which there were 240 to the £ and worth less than half a new penny) into the box on the door of a public lavatory to gain entry and relieve oneself.

Perhaps the purchasing power of the old penny - it could buy a copy of the Daily Mirror in the early 1950s - is the equivalent at least of 20p (4 shillings: i.e. a factor of 48) today or perhaps even 30p (6 shillings: a factor of 72). How much does the Mirror cost today - 40p or 50p? I feel that £1 today buys the equivalent of the old 5p (shilling) in the mid-1970s, a factor of 20. Such is inflation.

I wonder how much longer this saying will persist in the English language since you can buy nothing for a penny today.
3

Neanderthal75,

Rocky Mountains USA 17/04/2008 13:32:48
Hey EWB,

I don't know about you Brits, but in America, it literally costs more to mint a penny than the penny is worth: appx. 1.3 cents.

It's costing us about 33% MORE to mint the coin, than the coin is worth!

Sometimes I think that if we had an 'open season' on dumb/corrupt politicians every third Election Cycle, we end up with a much smarter bunch and far fewer professional politicians.

Cheers from the Rockies


 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.