There is absolutely no solid evidence to suggest it but this publication predicts that by the end of the month of January Britain will have announced that it intends to join the euro.I think they may be right. The Euro deposit account I opened in October is now up over 7% in sterling terms. This is what's happened to the pound:
Benign neglect down to parity, perhaps?
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the government has already decided to go for the Euro. What I'd love to know is this: in which currency is Tony Blair's "five million dollar" salary actually being paid? Could it be in Euros? He knows what's planned.
1 comment:
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NotaSheep
Not January 2008 then, but I think it could happen sooner than most believe possible.
11 February 2008, 10:18:10 GMT – Like – Reply
Alex
Interesting thinking but my gut instinct is that Brown is too much of a control freak to give up control of the currency.
26 January 2008, 01:59:21 GMT – Like – Reply
Neil Craig
Brown has let it be known that Blair had previously offered to let him take over if he would accept the Euro & refused partly on the grounds that he could never trust anything Blair told him & partly out of principle. That being the case he would lose face from joining.
I suspect there is a good economic reason anyway in which case a fall might be a good idea no matter how much a high exchange rate is seen as a sign of politicak virility.
19 January 2008, 16:13:20 GMT – Like – Reply
Sam Duncan
David E.: I know that; you know that; but can the Great British Public be persuaded otherwise by a prolonged propaganda campaign? I fear that may be Gordon's gambit.
17 January 2008, 21:17:33 GMT – Like – Reply
David Ellams
Joining the Euro will not avoid the crash that certain american politicians have been stoking up for some considerable time.
17 January 2008, 19:04:39 GMT – Like – Reply
jameshigham
Euro - safest currency just now for when they pull the plug. Or the rouble.
17 January 2008, 15:42:18 GMT – Like – Reply
Cleanthes
Hmmm.... just a thought?
I'm trying to work out how it would play, but what if he tried to combine a referendum on the Euro with a referendum on the constitution?
Stick them in one question and raise the stakes, so the questions get muddled and/or a NO vote would be a really serious rejection of the EU?
One ballot paper with two questions and go for the confusion that would result from a multiplicity of campaigns suggesting the four possible answers?
I still don't get it though: it was Brown who completely scotched the Euro as Chancellor and shafted Blair in the process. What's the game here? Why would he change his tune? Is there some kind of EU magic portrait in No.10 a la Harry Potter?
16 January 2008, 22:10:49 GMT – Like – Reply
David Farrer
Sam,
That's exactly what I fear.
16 January 2008, 19:58:23 GMT – Like – Reply
Sam Duncan
My first thought was the same as Mr E.'s: he can chicken out of a referendum on the Constitution, he can duck an election, but there's no way on Earth he'll get away with bouncing us into EMU.
But what if his (and all his news media pals') line is that the global credit crunch makes our continued "isolation" unsustainable? Could he spin it? Could he even hold a referendum and win, after six months of that sort of guff from the BBC and the like? There were plenty of people who believed the predictions of Britain's imminent economic demise before the launch of the Euro.
I have a nasty feeling the pro-EMU mob have something unpleasant up their sleeves.
16 January 2008, 13:26:19 GMT – Like – Reply
Mr Eugenides
I don't buy this. Brown would have to be insane to pick this particular fight - especially given the need for a referendum, which he's been desperately trying to avoid for the last few months.
GB has many psychological flaws, certainly, but I don't think he has a death wish. If this were true, his listing premiership would be sunk.
16 January 2008, 10:18:17 GMT
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