One of the few things we can give credit to Prime Minister Gordon Brown (who, despite his faults and his mistakes, IS genuinely patriotic and always tries to put his country first) is his refusal to back the Euro currency.
During his ten years as Chancellor of the Exchequer - 1997 to 2007 - he successfully manoeuvred against the Euro behind the scenes, ensuring Britain kept the Pound.
But some British politicians, whether a member of Labour, the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats, do back the Euro, but history has proven these people wrong.
Back in 1999, then Prime Minister Tony Blair attended an all-party "Britain in Europe" launch. Also at that event was the Conservative, Michael Heseltine, who was Deputy Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997, and Ken Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Tory government from 1993 to 1997.
This alliance, which also included famous business people such as Richard Branson, argued that Britain must adopt the Euro otherwise we risk losing trade, investment and jobs, and that "Britain will be damaged if we stay out."
But all these doom-mongering pro-Euro zealots were wrong - in fact, compared with the countries that have adopted the Euro, Britain has prospered.
Even taking into account the current credit crunch and recession, the British economy has grown much faster than most Eurozone countries.
The Irish economy is now no longer the so-called "Celtic Tiger". It has overheated and collapsed and is shrinking more than any other country in the Western World, despite the warnings issued by British eurosceptics that this would happen if it joined the Euro.
In Spain, unemployment is reaching an incredible 20%.
So things may be fairly bad in Britain, but they are even worse in countries which have adopted the Euro.
Why these Euro zealots owe us a huge apology
By Peter Oborne
17th October 2009
Daily Mail
Monetary sovereignty: Unlike many other EU countries, Britain has kept its own currency
There are very few reliable rules in politics, but one of them is that whenever consensus emerges on any given issue it is almost invariably wrong.
So it was in 1990 when almost every leading politician and businessman agreed about the need for sterling to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the pre- euro attempt to harmonise currencies).
So Britain signed up - leading to thousands of jobs being lost and the destruction of this country's reputation for economic competence when we had to ignominiously withdraw from it.
Monetary madness (from left): Michael Heseltine, then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ken Clarke launching the 'Britain in Europe' campaign in 1999
It was the same in 2003 when both Labour and Tory parties supported the invasion of Iraq.
And now, this week marks the tenth anniversary of another catastrophic all-party venture, when Britain's most respected politicians came together to argue the case for Britain to join the euro.
Back then few commentators dared argue that the position adopted by this alliance of Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Charles Kennedy could be wrong.
16 of the 27 EU Member States have adopted the Euro. They are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, (Republic of) Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain
The 11 Member States which haven't adopted the Euro are: Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden
After all, this cross-party group was supported by Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald, BP chairman Peter Sutherland, Virgin boss Richard Branson and the cream of the British business community.
Unsurprisingly, they were joined by Peter Mandelson, former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath, the Foreign Office, the CBI, the TUC and most leading City economists.
Reporting the 'Britain in Europe' campaign at the time, I remember with what gusto all these eminent figures ridiculed and sneered at the embattled Tory leader William Hague, who was leading the opposition and going round Britain in a battle bus calling on voters to 'save the pound'.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has always been against adopting the Euro
Today, a decade on, I believe that Blair (who dismissed William Hague as 'shrill'), Heseltine and the other promoters of 'Britain in Europe' owe the public a huge, collective apology. Had Britain joined the euro, our economy would have been shattered.
As for William Hague, history has proved him right.
The economic statistics reveal the stark truth. Since 2001, the British economy - even taking into account the past 12 months of financial crisis - has grown much faster than the eurozone countries and remained comparatively more stable than most.
These facts firmly disprove Mandelson's mendacious warning of the catastrophic consequences if Britain did not adopt the euro.
'The price,' he said, 'we would pay in lost investment and trade and jobs in Britain would be incalculable.'
He also warned: 'As long as we are outside the euro, there is little we can do to protect industry against destabilising swings in the value of sterling.'
Neil Kinnock: 'Staying out of the euro would damage this country'
Ken Clarke spoke in a similar misguided vein, claiming: 'Britain's economy will be damaged if we stay out too long.'
Meanwhile, Labour minister Peter Hain warned: 'I doubt that in the end it is possible to run a sort of parallel currency economy.'
And that great economic genius Neil Kinnock told the British public that staying out of the euro would damage this country's 'investment in public services and infrastructure'.
Not wishing to be left out of this cross-party consensus, the LibDems' Chris Huhne said failure to join the euro would lead to a collapse of inward investment and mocked eurosceptics who warned that the Irish economy would overheat once it joined the euro because of low interest rates.
As we now know, Huhne and his fellow euro-fanatics were proved to be completely and utterly wrong.
The Irish economy did overheat and it has since collapsed - all thanks to the Dublin government ditching the punt and signing up to the euro.
As part of the eurozone, the Irish government is locked into this economic mess and has no freedom to escape.
The same story can be told in many countries that now use the euro as their currency.
Both Portugal and Spain ( where unemployment is approaching a worrying 20 per cent) now face social disintegration as well as economic disaster.
If Britain had joined the euro, as that grand cross-party coalition of Blair, Heseltine & co urged, we would now be facing the same plight.
But by maintaining our own monetary sovereignty, we have been able to head off the danger of economic depression using a three-pronged strategy of reducing interest rates, devaluing sterling and introducing the so-called quantitative easing programme of printing extra money.
And the brutal truth is that we would have been able to take none of these measures if we had been part of the eurozone, with our economic policy set for us by the European Central Bank.
Even supporters of the euro are grudgingly beginning to recognise the truth. This week, LibDem economic spokesman Vince Cable acknowledged how much the pound's recent devaluation has done to help British manufacturers and exporters.
How different it would have been for these businessmen and women if Britain was a member of the euro as Vince Cable and his Lib-Dems want.
Of course it is too much to expect that Blair, Heseltine, Clarke, Mandelson and Kennedy and the rest of the pro- euro zealots will admit they got it wrong. But there's no harm in praising those politicians who got it right.
Let's not forget it was that muchmaligned Conservative Prime Minister John Major who negotiated Britain's opt- out in Maastricht 19 years ago and how he was abused for his 'little Englandism'.
Without Major's foresight and courage, we would now have no control over our economy. Let's not also forget the fortitude shown by William Hague during his miserable years as leader of the Tory Opposition.
History has shown that, for all his unpopularity, he was right over this profoundly important issue and that Tony Blair was wrong.
Finally, it's only fair to praise Gordon Brown. Curiously, he attended that 'Britain in Europe' launch ten years ago - but only under great duress. Secretly, he hated the euro project and as Chancellor had successfully manoeuvred behind the scenes against it.
When the history books are finally written, they will probably ignore his time as Prime Minister and judge that Gordon Brown's greatest achievement was to stop that mad, Gadarene rush to take us into the euro.
dailymail.co.uk
During his ten years as Chancellor of the Exchequer - 1997 to 2007 - he successfully manoeuvred against the Euro behind the scenes, ensuring Britain kept the Pound.
But some British politicians, whether a member of Labour, the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats, do back the Euro, but history has proven these people wrong.
Back in 1999, then Prime Minister Tony Blair attended an all-party "Britain in Europe" launch. Also at that event was the Conservative, Michael Heseltine, who was Deputy Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997, and Ken Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Tory government from 1993 to 1997.
This alliance, which also included famous business people such as Richard Branson, argued that Britain must adopt the Euro otherwise we risk losing trade, investment and jobs, and that "Britain will be damaged if we stay out."
But all these doom-mongering pro-Euro zealots were wrong - in fact, compared with the countries that have adopted the Euro, Britain has prospered.
Even taking into account the current credit crunch and recession, the British economy has grown much faster than most Eurozone countries.
The Irish economy is now no longer the so-called "Celtic Tiger". It has overheated and collapsed and is shrinking more than any other country in the Western World, despite the warnings issued by British eurosceptics that this would happen if it joined the Euro.
In Spain, unemployment is reaching an incredible 20%.
So things may be fairly bad in Britain, but they are even worse in countries which have adopted the Euro.
Why these Euro zealots owe us a huge apology
By Peter Oborne
17th October 2009
Daily Mail
Monetary sovereignty: Unlike many other EU countries, Britain has kept its own currency
There are very few reliable rules in politics, but one of them is that whenever consensus emerges on any given issue it is almost invariably wrong.
So it was in 1990 when almost every leading politician and businessman agreed about the need for sterling to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the pre- euro attempt to harmonise currencies).
So Britain signed up - leading to thousands of jobs being lost and the destruction of this country's reputation for economic competence when we had to ignominiously withdraw from it.
Monetary madness (from left): Michael Heseltine, then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ken Clarke launching the 'Britain in Europe' campaign in 1999
It was the same in 2003 when both Labour and Tory parties supported the invasion of Iraq.
And now, this week marks the tenth anniversary of another catastrophic all-party venture, when Britain's most respected politicians came together to argue the case for Britain to join the euro.
Back then few commentators dared argue that the position adopted by this alliance of Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Charles Kennedy could be wrong.
16 of the 27 EU Member States have adopted the Euro. They are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, (Republic of) Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain
The 11 Member States which haven't adopted the Euro are: Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden
After all, this cross-party group was supported by Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald, BP chairman Peter Sutherland, Virgin boss Richard Branson and the cream of the British business community.
Unsurprisingly, they were joined by Peter Mandelson, former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath, the Foreign Office, the CBI, the TUC and most leading City economists.
Reporting the 'Britain in Europe' campaign at the time, I remember with what gusto all these eminent figures ridiculed and sneered at the embattled Tory leader William Hague, who was leading the opposition and going round Britain in a battle bus calling on voters to 'save the pound'.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has always been against adopting the Euro
Today, a decade on, I believe that Blair (who dismissed William Hague as 'shrill'), Heseltine and the other promoters of 'Britain in Europe' owe the public a huge, collective apology. Had Britain joined the euro, our economy would have been shattered.
As for William Hague, history has proved him right.
The economic statistics reveal the stark truth. Since 2001, the British economy - even taking into account the past 12 months of financial crisis - has grown much faster than the eurozone countries and remained comparatively more stable than most.
These facts firmly disprove Mandelson's mendacious warning of the catastrophic consequences if Britain did not adopt the euro.
'The price,' he said, 'we would pay in lost investment and trade and jobs in Britain would be incalculable.'
He also warned: 'As long as we are outside the euro, there is little we can do to protect industry against destabilising swings in the value of sterling.'
Neil Kinnock: 'Staying out of the euro would damage this country'
Ken Clarke spoke in a similar misguided vein, claiming: 'Britain's economy will be damaged if we stay out too long.'
Meanwhile, Labour minister Peter Hain warned: 'I doubt that in the end it is possible to run a sort of parallel currency economy.'
And that great economic genius Neil Kinnock told the British public that staying out of the euro would damage this country's 'investment in public services and infrastructure'.
Not wishing to be left out of this cross-party consensus, the LibDems' Chris Huhne said failure to join the euro would lead to a collapse of inward investment and mocked eurosceptics who warned that the Irish economy would overheat once it joined the euro because of low interest rates.
As we now know, Huhne and his fellow euro-fanatics were proved to be completely and utterly wrong.
The Irish economy did overheat and it has since collapsed - all thanks to the Dublin government ditching the punt and signing up to the euro.
As part of the eurozone, the Irish government is locked into this economic mess and has no freedom to escape.
The same story can be told in many countries that now use the euro as their currency.
Both Portugal and Spain ( where unemployment is approaching a worrying 20 per cent) now face social disintegration as well as economic disaster.
If Britain had joined the euro, as that grand cross-party coalition of Blair, Heseltine & co urged, we would now be facing the same plight.
But by maintaining our own monetary sovereignty, we have been able to head off the danger of economic depression using a three-pronged strategy of reducing interest rates, devaluing sterling and introducing the so-called quantitative easing programme of printing extra money.
And the brutal truth is that we would have been able to take none of these measures if we had been part of the eurozone, with our economic policy set for us by the European Central Bank.
Even supporters of the euro are grudgingly beginning to recognise the truth. This week, LibDem economic spokesman Vince Cable acknowledged how much the pound's recent devaluation has done to help British manufacturers and exporters.
How different it would have been for these businessmen and women if Britain was a member of the euro as Vince Cable and his Lib-Dems want.
Of course it is too much to expect that Blair, Heseltine, Clarke, Mandelson and Kennedy and the rest of the pro- euro zealots will admit they got it wrong. But there's no harm in praising those politicians who got it right.
Let's not forget it was that muchmaligned Conservative Prime Minister John Major who negotiated Britain's opt- out in Maastricht 19 years ago and how he was abused for his 'little Englandism'.
Without Major's foresight and courage, we would now have no control over our economy. Let's not also forget the fortitude shown by William Hague during his miserable years as leader of the Tory Opposition.
History has shown that, for all his unpopularity, he was right over this profoundly important issue and that Tony Blair was wrong.
Finally, it's only fair to praise Gordon Brown. Curiously, he attended that 'Britain in Europe' launch ten years ago - but only under great duress. Secretly, he hated the euro project and as Chancellor had successfully manoeuvred behind the scenes against it.
When the history books are finally written, they will probably ignore his time as Prime Minister and judge that Gordon Brown's greatest achievement was to stop that mad, Gadarene rush to take us into the euro.
dailymail.co.uk
Last edited:
