THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS...
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 08:53AM 
We all know how arrogant the European Union is and how little regard it has for the views of the ordinary citizens that make up the Nation States it seeks to control. So it was no BIG surprise to read that the European Commission president said the UK was 'closer than ever before' to signing up to the single currency. Jose Manuel Barroso said he had held private conversations with 'the people who count in Britain' and knew that they were ready to move into the euro-zone.
And who are "the people who count in Britain"? Step forward Lord Peter Mandelson - the man who has been forced to resign TWICE from government and who has been brought back from the EU to the UK government by Prudence Brown in a last-gasp attempt to save his ailing regime. Mandelson believes that the UK should abandon its ancient currency and join the Euro-zone and now he is back at the black heart of government there will be more spinning on this subject.This man is pure political poison.
Of course the government knows that the people of Britain would reject the Euro if we were ever given the vote, but as we saw in Ireland, even when the people speak and say No, the EU elite, inlcuding Mandelson, reject such a response. So, is it possible that Brown could try and rail-road us into the Euro without a referendum, using the financial crisis as a useful flag of convenience? Nothing would surprise me since we have a government that delights in evasion, guile, deceit and arrogance.
EU 
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Reader Comments (19)
So, is it possible that Brown could try and rail-road us into the Euro without a referendum, using the financial crisis as a useful flag of convenience?
Only if he wants his party to be out of power for a generation.
Great post (and very funny) from Cranmer on the Euro issue
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/
See also your thread - VAT DAY - Monday December 1st @ 5.04 p.m.
What are you fellas using - pigeon post?
Since the Pound is rapidly deteriorating into a second tier currency is there not a certain logic in going back to a first among equals currency like the euro?
I am a bit of a hypocrite here, being a Canadian I would never accept going to the american dollar as some here have suggested, but strictly as a mental exercise isn't there a logic to it?
Ernest,
Good to see you keeping us on our toes!
Sean - no.
Pete Why?
Is there any chance that this fall could help get British manufacturing industry back on its feet again?
Or is it too far gone?
Sean,
If sterling is a 'second-tier' currency, then surely the euro has to be in the third tier.
The euro is the currency version of those Credit Default Swaps that caused such an asset valuation problem in financial circles recently, inasmuch as it is made up of so many unrelated and dissimilar economies. The German component being the AAA version, while Greek, Spanish, Italian and other fringe economies being the sub-prime element.
The economic gap between the best and the worst performing economies has now reached its limit, and is verging on the unsustainable.
Now just how substantial is a currency, supported by virtually one component, - the German one? How long will they be willing to support all these fringe economies, - given that many German towns are now reverting back to using Deutschemarks?, my guess is not too long. Germany is now the reluctant paymaster.
Investors are no longer willing to treat Greek, Italian, Irish or Spanish debt as interchangeable with German debt.
Maybe it is the right time to shelve those 'anti-Yankee' predjudices...
Oh, I'd love to see the Canadians move to the Yankee dollar. I could hear the gnashing of teeth on Yonge Street right now. The French Canadians might be OK with it but not so the Toronto crowd.
Though as some will know there are a few non US places that use the US dollar as a de facto or de jure national currency right now, including Ecuador, Bermuda and Panama.
Its saves a ton of admin costs and you have a currency that everyone else in the world knows, etc.
Phantom you are wrong its the Trawna wannabe's that want to move us to the yankey dollar. They would secede to the states now if they wouldnt lose their health care.
Ernest
If the Euro is as bad as you say it is then why is it still so highly valued?
As for my anti-yankee prejudices, every one has some prejudices atleast mine are based on policies and attitudes and not on skin colour or religion
Sean,
I never said yours were anything other than politically or ethically correct...:-)
Regarding valuations, those CDS's were also valued higher than their real value, - largely out of ignorance, likewise with the euro...you don't really think that they will dodge the bullet of recession do you?, it is because it isn't quite so universal in use as they like to think it is, that the recession is taking slightly longer to reach to reach them!
Sean -
Your question was:
Since the Pound is rapidly deteriorating into a second tier currency is there not a certain logic in going back to a first among equals currency like the euro?
The question of the Euro always comes back to matters economic and financial. Because it's a currency, this is only how it's viewed by most.
The actual point of the Euro was always power - who governs Europe?
The EU cannot become the single political state it was always meant to be without a single currency under Euro central bank control.
Giving up Sterling then isn't a question of what the 'better' currency is, it's about losing one the few remaining ways we have of governing ourselves.
As I've said in here in the past, even if I thought that adopting the Euro would be economically advantageous to Britons, I would still oppose it.
Even if Sterling is becoming a second tier currency, I would still advocate retaining our own money.
Anyway, these things are transitory and in my view to say today that Sterling is becoming second tier doesn't mean it will always be so.
Even then, even if I thought Sterling would become a second rate currency permanently, I would still argue against adopting a currency controlled by a foreign power hostile to the British people who we cannot make accountable.
Sean -
I'll just add, a Labour government has taken us again to the late-1970s when we were a decrepit, socialist basket case. I won;t describe just how bad it was since I'll not stop typing that particular story.
Ten years later we'd worked our way back, Maggie was in her element and lunch was for losers.
Today we have a Labour government, it won't always be so, but while the Euro exists it will be underpinned by Spain, Italy and Greece, and that's not AAA rated.
Sean
Curious you live in Canada now? Where?
Ernest - Pete thanks for the info and I can understand wishing to retain your own currency regardless of logic just to retain your own identity
Phantom I am from the flatlands out west in Manitoba where you only have to use the steering wheel of your car every 10 or 15 miles and to swerve around the deer on the road
Stay off the Greyhound buses
yeah that whole bus thing happened in Manitoba but it was one of the local nuts from fundaMENTALIST Alberta
Besides which do I look poor? Pfft haven been on a greyhound in 20 years from when my buddy crashed his car in Victoria when we were on vacation.
Love is truly blind as he met a new girl and missed spotting the Buick with the right of way
There's nothing wrong with the pound: what is wrong is the economy on which the pound is based. It has been trashed,and deliberately so. No 'incompetent' could ever have destroyed our pensions, sold off half of our gold reserves at rock bottom prices, and brought about a forthcoming £trillion national debt. Brown should be prosecuted for economic vandalism - effectively treason.