It was a bad move on Finland’s part to get involved with it, they know it’s true, but the principle parties involved in getting the country into the Euro zone, are still hunkering down around their parties decision, because they can’t admit to having been wrong. The Brits and the Swedes have everything to be pleased about, they still maintain a modicum of sovereignty which allows them to react more effectively to their own domestic economic situation than those who joined the Euro. KGS
10 years on, Britain happy to have stayed out of the euro
A decade after the euro came into circulation, the British are more hostile than ever towards a currency that faces a battle for survival, and cannot hide their satisfaction at holding on to the pound. Yet such sentiment masks the fact that while the eurozone is struggling, the British economy is not exactly booming either.
According to a poll in the wake of Prime Minister David Cameron’s veto at a crunch European Union summit, 65 percent of Britons said they believe the euro is doomed and only one in five respondents thought it would survive. The Sunday Times newspaper caught the mood with its headline: “It’s bad, but at least we’re outside the eurozone.”
Anyone who hates Europe and the euro “can boast in the pub that they were right all along,” it said. Despite the hostility to the euro, the tangible benefits of Britain’s decision to stay out of the single European currency appear to be limited. Figures from the European Commission show that Britain’s public deficit in 2011 will be greater than that of Greece and its debt will be roughly equal to that of France, despite an unprecedented set of painful austerity measures. Meanwhile, unemployment is at a 17-year high and inflation is twice the rate of the eurozone.
Essentially, Britain is still paying the bill for the financial crisis of 2008 which caused deep damage to its banking and financial services sectors, in which it is the leading nation in Europe. Financial services were the reason given by Cameron for dramatically using the veto on a revamped EU treaty because he fears new regulations from the bloc would restrict the City of London’s room to manoeuvre.
