Do we or dont we. How will we know how to vote when the time comes (The Euro)

Member Name: Mick-Gray

Product:	The Euro
Date:	10/05/01 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perhaps a better economy

Disadvantages: The loss of economic independace

Do we join or not? I’m not an economist and neither are the millions of people who will be asked to vote in a referendum on the subject, but as it is us, who will be asked to decide, how do we make an informed decision?

I have read views on the subject and I have listened and tried to understand the views of a variety of economists. Each one has a different answer, one will tell you that if we don’t join, our economy and trade with Europe will suffer, the next one will tell you that if we do join our government’s control over the finances of our country will disappear and our economy will be ruled by a central bank, who will base their economic decisions on what is best for Europe as a whole and not our country in particular. If the so called experts cannot tell us whether we would gain or lose by joining how are we the general public supposed to know how to vote?

The business world is divided in their views with some being for and others against and so are the Major political parties and not only along party lines. There are those in the Labour party and many in the Conservative party who oppose entry for many and various reasons. Such as the globalisation of big businesses, the loss of economic power over our own country, the loss of sovereignty that would inevitably come from joining, and those who see it leading to a United states of Europe. Those in favour again cite the possibility of a loss of trade with Europe, the loss of investment to the country therefore resulting in a loss of jobs, a belief that we should have closer ties with Europe and that we should be in there early to help shape the decisions of how it will all proceed.

So who is right and who is wrong? If the experts, Big business and the Politicians cant agree on which route we should take (remember these are the people we look to, to tell us the facts) how do we decide. If you have some economic knowledge or are perhaps a student of economics or pol
itics you will probably already have a strong view on the way that we should go, but remember, although you may claim some knowledge of the subject, it is still only a view, there are many out there with the same or better qualifications who will argue the complete opposite, what ever your view is. If the study of economics was an exact science we would never have any economic problems. The belief that you must be right and everybody who disagrees must be wrong is at best naïve and at worst a recipe for disaster should such a person ever have the power to force his views on the rest of us.

So we are back to the original question, how do we decide if we cannot base our decision on the opinions of the experts? I suppose it is left to us to decide by our gut feeling of what we think it all means. Do you want to lose the pound sterling, how do you really feel about that, do you care at all. Do you want closer economic ties with Europe whereby our economy is controlled by a central European bank, who if it doing its job properly, will be trying to look after the interests of Europe as a whole and will have great difficulty in changing its policy, just because it doesn’t suit the economy of one of the member states. (Have you noticed how they are referred to as states and not countries)? Do you want ( as several prominent European politicians have stated that they want) a United States of Europe? Do you want the British Army to become part of a European rapid reaction force with control over them eventually being taken by Europe. Do you want the sovereignty of this country to gradually decrease as more and more power is handed over to the European parliament. Do you want laws passed by our government to be overruled by Europe when they disagree with them? Do you want the decisions of our courts to continue to be overturned by the European court? Do you want the businesses in this country to be ever more burdened by red tape loaded upon them by the European
beaurocrats? Do we want to be told when a sausage is not a sausage and what ingredients we have to put in to enable us to call a bar of chocolate by the name we have always called it. Do you want to be told what unit of measurement or weight we have to use. The list is endless but if your answer to the majority of these questions is yes then of course you will vote to join the EMU with all the consequences that it has for this country because you wish to be a European. If your answer to the majority of these questions is No then you will be voting, as I will to stay out.

As we cannot be certain of which economic viewpoint is right then we can only judge by how we feel. I am not a Europhobe I love France for its culture and its countryside and Spain, Portugal Etc. for the same reasons. But I also like Britain how it is as well. We all have our own distinct cultures and there is nothing wrong with being different. A United states of Europe which we all know is the eventual aim of our main European partners, if not our own government, would eventually cause dissent among the member states as they would each have their own agenda based on what they felt was best for them and at best lead to eventual civil unrest and strikes and at worst I shudder to think.

Do we rally want to gamble away our sovereignty and our economic independence for the chance that maybe there will be better opportunities for big business. There are plenty of other countries that in size are the same or even smaller than us whose economy is not in need of this kind of amalgamation and their currency and investment hasn’t suffered because of it. So why take the chance when it is almost certainly irreversible.

I work in Factories all over the country I know of at least one very succesful company who has had to close up because of European legislation. It was a company that refined edible oils for the british chocolate industry. For years british chocolate was made wi
th these oils and tasted fine to me. But then we had a directive from Brussels to say that to call a product chocolate it must have a certain percentage of cocoa butter and the oils that we used did not allow us to call it chocolate. Of course the ingrediants that we are now directed to use come from Europe and as the edible oil factory had no further outlets for its products it closed. The chocolate tastes no different but a british factory closed and the European producers had gained valuble export markets to this country. (Funny that the Belgians make a lot of chocolate and the directive came from Brussels)This I know is only one example but it gives an insight to the way that the European states have there own interests at heart and not those of the community at large. They will be only too happy to see the demise of what industry we have left and the wind up of the very profitable finacial institutions in the City.

This country has rarely had anything in common with Europe, we have more to gain by re-establishing our ties with our commonwealth partners and our traditional markets. The Europeans will do every thing that they can to promote their own interests to the detrement of ours and once in the Euro we would be just a tiny cog in a big wheel that would have almost no say in what went on.

Mick Gray

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