Britain needs to join Euroland!

“The tragedy for Britain has been that politicians of both parties have consistently failed to appreciate the emerging reality of European integration,” Tony Blair said some time long ago. And he was right.
However, I do not want to write about European integration in general, but about the Euro, the currency that unites our Union.
Let us firstly ask ourselves: Why do we need the Pound Sterling? We need it, because (at the moment) the Pound is falling (compared to the Euro), which is great for UK exports. (But then, Britain does not export too much anyway).
This, however, also means that if you travel to Euroland, your Frappuccino will cost more, which will make your fun holidays in the wonderful South of France less great.
Joining the Euro does not mean that export will be impossible, only fairer. (And, we cannot just hope that the Pound keeps devaluating itself!) Let us have a look at the Thatcherite argument that the Pound is a part of national sovereignty. That’s just rubbish! The Pound is great, I love paying with it, but I have also paid with the Swiss Frank, with the Israeli New Sheqel, with the Turkish Lira, the US Dollar, etc, and I never had a problem with it. The “sovereignty” a national currency represents exists only in the heads of the burghers.
I remember how politicians in all countries in our fine Union had massive problems, as they tried to introduce the Euro and therewith EMU; Germans, for example, certainly did not like to give up their Deutschmark, as it seemed to them to be the only German thing (apart from maybe cars) that actually turned out to be a success (ignoring Heidi Klum). But they survived it, as will this wonderful Kingdom.
Even the Danes, who are known for being as reserved (to say the least!) about the EU will have a referendum soon on joining the Eurozone, and it looks as though the Yes-campaigners will win.
So far Britain always joint EU-European projects a few years too late in order to truly profit from them. As Britain joint the EEC, the money of the regional trust (to just name one of several) went to Greece, Spain and Portugal, whereas Britain could have profited from it, had it joint a bit earlier. As Britain joint EEC, policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy were already formed and Britain was unable to make them any more Britain-friendly (I will at this point not go into the entire debate on the BBQ). As Britain joint the Exchange Rate Mechanism (or in fact even the EMS), it was too late to be advantages for Britain. This list seems never ending, but Mr Franklin will complain if this post is too long, therefore I shall stop here.
However, it is not quite too late to join the Euro! Yes, by committing earlier to the Euro, Britain could have had more influence on how to set up the European Central Bank (which became some sort of bigger version of the Bundesbank), but the Euro is still evolving (and on the best way to becoming the world’s most important currency) and Britain can participate in this progress.
We need to end this annoying (and politically as well as economically dangerous) eurosclerosis and finally commit to the Euro, one of the greatest achievements of EU-European politics ever!
Schreiber