Q WHO was it who said: "Get on your bike and go and look for work". My son says it was Margaret Thatcher, I say it was Norman Tebbit. - Mrs A Shields, Darlington.

A AS far as I know, neither Margaret Thatcher nor Norman Tebbit ever said this. However, it is usually attributed to Norman Tebbit and derives from his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in October, 1981.

At this time Britain had been troubled by riots and many blamed unemployment as a major cause of the troubles. In his speech, Tebbit remarked: "I grew up in the 30s with our unemployed father. He did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work. And he kept on looking till he found it."

Tebbit's speech gave rise to the phrases "On yer bike" and "Get on yer bike" often cited by newspapers and other commentators to represent unsympathetic or simplistic solutions to unemployment, but falsely attributed to Tebbit.

Q HOW did the signs for currency come about? The British pound sign, £, and the American dollar, $. Is there a symbol for the euro? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

A THE £ sign derives from the letter L. When L was written in old-fashioned handwriting styles it looked like a £. The line through the middle, or occasionally two lines, were added to show that it was an abbreviation.

This unit of measure is also the early origin of the abbreviation lb for a pound as a measure of weight. The origin of the dollar symbol is less certain.

It is thought to have developed from the number 8 and may possibly have referred to Spanish pieces of eight. However, the name dollar has a Germanic rather than a Spanish origin. It was originally North German or Dutch 'daler'.

The euro symbol was created by the European Commission and was chosen from a selection of 30 designs in 1996. The design had to satisfy three criteria. It had to be recognisable as a symbol of Europe, it had to be easy to write by hand and it had to be aesthetically pleasing.

The chosen symbol was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon. The euro symbol is best described as a letter C with two lines drawn through it, so that it resembles a stylised E for Europe. The C shape, rather than the E, was probably chosen to make the symbol easy to write by hand.

Published: 27/05/2002

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