On Thursday night I gave a talk to Council members in Earley at their request. I spoke about the lack of freedom and poor living standards under communism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the amalgamation of the two Germanies, the currency union of the 2 Germanies, and the peaceful and easy break up of the rouble zone. This was by way of background to the disaster of the Exchange Rate Mechanism as a dry run for the Euro, the reasons I helped keep the pound, the problems facing Greece and other poorer countries within the Eurozone, and why if they want it to work the richer countries and parts of the zone will have to pay a lot more tax to send money to the poorer parts.