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No10 rejects rumours of joining the euro

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Published Date: 02 December 2008
By ROSS LYDALL
DOWNING Street yesterday played down suggestions that Britain was "closer than ever before" to scrapping the pound and replacing it with the euro.
The Prime Minister's spokesman made clear that there had been no change in government policy and that five economic tests had to be passed before the euro would be adopted in the UK.

Speculation was sparked after José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said he had been told by "some British politicians" the UK would have been better off if it had adopted the euro.

Lord Mandelson, the pro-European Business Secretary, was rumoured at Westminster to have been the source.

Despite public opposition, it was a long-standing ambition of Tony Blair, in his decade as prime minister, to take Britain into the euro. But he was frustrated by Gordon Brown, when he was chancellor, who drew up five tests that had to be met before it could be considered.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "Our decision on whether or not to join the euro will be based on an assessment of what is in the British economic interests."





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  • Last Updated: 01 December 2008 10:27 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Rufus T. Firefly,

01/12/2008 22:51:57
I would not be surprised if Westminster decides to join the Euro.

Gordon Brown is to blame. All he wants to do is stop us Scots printing our own bank notes.

Its all a conspiracy I tell ye!

As Australian Actor Mel Gibson once said.........

"They may take our Scottish pound notes, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!
2

Rufus T. Firefly,

02/12/2008 00:11:55
Tory lead cut as Labour faithful return to the fold

Labour has narrowed the Conservative Party's poll lead to just one point as the "Brown bounce" continues, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent.

It suggests that the measures in last week's pre-Budget report (PBR), including a new 45p-in-the-pound top rate of tax on incomes over £150,000, have proved popular among Labour's core voters.

The survey, taken between Friday and Sunday, puts the Tories on 37 per cent (down two points on last month), Labour on 36 per cent (up five points), the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent (up one point) and other parties on 10 per cent (down four points).

The figures would give Gordon Brown an overall majority of 10 if repeated at a general election. The gap between the two main parties is the narrowest in any poll since January, when an Ipsos MORI survey put Labour one point ahead.
3

subrosa,

02/12/2008 00:51:58
A Euro is worth £0.846 today. Not long to go before €1 = £1.

People are selling sterling because they know it's a troubled currency.
4

the.ally ,

max. 02/12/2008 01:25:25
'Dufus', what the fock?

Now ye'r Scottish?

Whit's gaen' on here?

subrosa; the preverbial is hitting the fan.
laughing-boy tried to guff-bluff his way out of a major disastor for Scotland, (and the yuk), but he failed tremendously at the G20; what a wierdo!

This guy is a plus for Scottish nationalism.
allymax.
5

KampungHighlander,

Jakarta 02/12/2008 01:47:52
The UK can not join the Euro because it cannot meet the Euro Area minimum standards for Debt to GDP.

None of the Euro area countries want the "Sickman of Europe" to join.

Having a member as fiscally imprudent as the UK could damage the currencies stability for all the other Euro states.

If the UK wants to join the Euro it needs to start getting it financial house in order, like Bulgaria and Romania.




6

Dark Lochnagar,

Symington 02/12/2008 01:48:16
Rufus, old chappie, your a pr!ck.
7

,

02/12/2008 03:04:10
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8

,

02/12/2008 07:49:04
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9

Foresight,

By the Water of Leith 02/12/2008 07:50:58

Rufus alias for George Foulkes ?????????????
10

Donnie Murdo,

Western Isles 02/12/2008 08:20:39
I think joining the EURO would be the best thing. That way, we wouldn't have to be tied to a fekless London based regime anymore.

Cash is cash, doesn't matter what is printed on the note. Since the RBS and BOS are effectviely London Government controlled and owned, they literally are nbot worth the paper they are printed on so who cares?

Bring on the EURO!
11

,

02/12/2008 08:48:35
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12

gus1940,

Edinburgh 02/12/2008 08:57:17
The sooner we join the Euro the better.

Why is Brown not being hammered for stopping us joining years ago?
13

Mr. Lachie Todd,

Edinburgh 02/12/2008 09:40:55
Sooner, or later, the UK will have to join the Euro because the pound won't be worth saving!

After the European Central Bank was founded and the launch of the Euro all the Little Scotlander and Englanders arrogantly claimed it would soon collapse after a few months?

The Euro, like the US and Canadian dollar, Swiss Franc, and Japanese Yen, is now one of the world's premier currencies.

Since the onset of the financial crisis the pound
has continued to weaken. Yesterday, it fell by almost 5 US cents!

The UK is no longer an attractive offshore haven for currency speculators. The financial crisis killed that idea dead for the present.

A report in the Wall Street Journal claims that the financial speculator(and philanthropist), George Soros, the man who, in 1992 "broke the Bank of England"
when it was humiliatingly forced to withdraw from the European ERM, has recently been selling pounds.

I'm apt to believe Soros rather than a bunch of Limeys!
14

Mcsnagpile,

02/12/2008 09:51:15
Bring back the Groat. But the question is how many Groats to the pound.
Ah remember when mony a mickle makt a Muckle. Now the mickle is bigger than a muckle.
Everybody is cheating in the euro requirements so we might get in under the door.
But it is a muckle mess if you ask me.
15

Alan B,

02/12/2008 10:08:30
I think this is just labour spin. Spin enough and they could then get the tories to show splits.

Labour also know that the euro is not politically acceptable in england but a recession and panic gives then a window of opportunity to take the euro plunge if they wanted to.

My own view is to be very supportive of the euro but you do not make such a big transitional change in the middle of an economic meltdown. The tories tried that with the erm and it was a disaster.

I think the eu would wave to criteria for uk membership and ignore Browns massive debt levels as much of the euro for the eu is political and not just economic.

It probably would be a bad move for the euro at this time as the uk is in such a mess it needs all the flexibility it can get to get out of this government (brown) inspired mess.
16

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

02/12/2008 11:22:39
#15 I have to agree regards the reasons for this "story". Labour would love nothing more than the Tory pro-Europeans such Ken Clarke and the Thatcherites having a ding-dong over Euro entry. Are the Tories dumb enough to let that happen?

Incidentally, does anyone actually know where Cameron and Osborne stand regards Euro entry?
17

Rasco,

02/12/2008 11:34:50
Calman report "Full fiscal powers ruled out" why are we not surprised Scotland might be better off with the Euro.
18

John S,

02/12/2008 11:57:08
Commission on Scottish Devolution-First Report Published
http://tinyurl.com/68a7hn
19

Alan B,

02/12/2008 12:08:10
#The Federalist

I would imagine Cameron would be completely against. Cameron did after want the tories to pull out of some right of centre political grouping within the eu to join an anti eu grouping.

We have just had the BBC amd some of the other media playing to Ken Clarke asking him about the his approach to dealing with the crisis, the VAT policy etc. Now that they have him hooked and in the limelight again you imagine the next question will be over the euro.

I do not think the tories will be split so much as they are all now anti euro. Clarke is not on the front bench, Heseltine is old and past it and no longer a serious player.

But where it could play is if Brown looks open to all options in a crisis and the tories rule the euro out for political reasons. While the english public are against it, it could lead to the business backing labour. The CBI and all, backed the misguided erm debacle.

But labour main tactic via mandelson etc is to ensure headlines and column inches and smoke screens to distract from the negativity. Talk about the euro and we are not talking about Browns economic handling.

20

lachlan,

02/12/2008 13:31:56
lets join the euro before its too late.the pound is slipping on a daily basis.
21

Finnking,

Lempäälä 02/12/2008 13:33:09
As KampungHighlander (5) rightly points out, the 'uk' cannot join the Euro Zone just now.

It will happen one day!
22

Alan B,

02/12/2008 13:44:27
#Finnking

Other countries joined the euro not meeting the german inspired debt criteria. Belgium had debt at 120% of gdp at the time of joining, well over the 60% debt level criteria for euro membership.
23

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

02/12/2008 13:51:38
#19 Ken Clarke is one of those politicians who perceptively has more power than he actually has. Anything he says about the Euro will be blown up by the media. If Cameron disagrees, then you can bet your bottom dollar that the headlines will be "Tories split over Europe". Even if the vast majority of Tory MPs back the Cameron line (and I suspect they do) the perecption will be that there is a split.

More grist to the Labour smoke machine mill.
24

,

02/12/2008 13:56:42
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25

Ugly George,

Edinburgh 02/12/2008 14:09:51
20 Lachlan
"lets join the euro before its too late.the pound is slipping on a daily basis."

One of the main reasons the pound has slipped against the euro is that sterling interest rates are lower than euro interest rates for the first time since the introduction of the euro in 1999.

The pound slipped again yesterday as there was speculation over the weekend that to help deal tith the recession, there would be another 1% cut when the MPC meet this week. This would give a sterling interest rate of 2% as opposed to the euro rate of 3.25%.

The problem of being part of the Eurozone is that you have to wait for the ECB to make interest rate decisions. In doing so it has to take into account recession/inflation in loads of different countries. This tends to make it very slow and cumbersome to react.
26

Gdgy,

02/12/2008 15:45:10
"#19 Ken Clarke is one of those politicians who perceptively has more power than he actually has. Anything he says about the Euro will be blown up by the media. If Cameron disagrees, then you can bet your bottom dollar that the headlines will be "Tories split over Europe". Even if the vast majority of Tory MPs back the Cameron line (and I suspect they do) the perecption will be that there is a split.

More grist to the Labour smoke machine mill."

Does the tory party have a line on Europe (or any other issue) and is this Cameron's line?
27

Alan B,

02/12/2008 16:19:23
#UG

"The problem of being part of the Eurozone is that you have to wait for the ECB to make interest rate decisions. In doing so it has to take into account recession/inflation in loads of different countries. This tends to make it very slow and cumbersome to react."

I do not think it is slow and cumbersome that is the issue or even accurate. The issue with the euro is that because they will be set for inflation of the whole euro zone the interest rates may be not set at the optimal rate for any one country.

European banks is modelled on the old german bank which puts inflation at its core rather than growth. Germany was almost obsessive in guarding against inflation possibly becuase of the hyper inflation the country sufferred previously.

However having the ability to control interest rates adn the advantage that gives must be set against the disadvantage of currency fluxations. It is much harder for business to trade within the single market if they are not sure what the exchange rate will be.

The problem in the uk is that interest rates needed for the south of the uk are completely different much of the time to interest rates in the north. As such scotland and the north of england can suffer from growth being suffocated by higher than needed interest rates while the south is suffering from inflation due to interest rates not being set high enough.
28

Hugh Roscombe,

02/12/2008 16:21:37
Ugly George re the euro

"This tends to make it very slow and cumbersome to react."

It's also a strong currency.
29

Finnking,

Lempäälä 02/12/2008 16:26:40
Alan B

True-ish. Visit this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_criteria
30

Observer. 1,

Glasgow 02/12/2008 19:32:17
So we're going to be joining the Euro then. I bet that UKIP poster won't be pleased.
31

,

02/12/2008 21:24:59
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32

Jimmy Le Pie,

02/12/2008 22:29:38
Could any of the New Labour Sleaze apologists on here explain why the Pound is collapsing against all other currencies?

As we keep being told, Comrade Broon has solved the world's economic woes, so should the pound not be increasing in value against other currencies?

I notice that at PMQ's, Comrade Broon continually refuses to answer the question.

Will asking this question become a treasonable offence?

Can I expect the armed anti-terrorist police to arrest me??

Bring on the election!!!
33

Max FM,

Scoland 03/12/2008 09:01:45
In the modern interconnected world... joining the euro & having a stable currency would actually really help Scotland's companies.

Therefore I expect the idea rejected instantly!
34

,

03/12/2008 10:39:12
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