Thursday, Jan 08, 2009
Looks like the Euro is not even an option now. We're on our own!
Telegraph: ECB deems Britain unworthy of euro
"Great Britain does not meet the entry criteria for the euro," said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, the ECB's board member in charge of international affairs.
"The public deficit will rise to around 6pc (of GDP) in 2009 and even higher in 2010. Sterling's exchange rate is not yet sufficiently stable," he told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.
Posted by flintster1994 @ 01:39 PM (1170 views) Add Comment
18 Comments
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1. bystander said...
Good.
2. techieman said...
i second that bystander - you beat me to it!!!
3. japanese uncle said...
I simply cannot buy this argument. Then what about Italy, Greece and Portugal? Anyway Euro will probably be no more in 2012.
4. crunchy said...
Hold on a second, rewind,have I missed a trick here?
Who said anything about going into the euro in the first place?
Are we being lined up for a future in the euro here?
5. paul said...
JU, crunchy, the Euro has always had relatively strict criteria for entry. Basically it's two years' parity, along with a host of other criteria.
AFAIK, these criteria cannot be changed easily and other countries did also have to meet these criteria before gaining entry.
6. paul said...
Sorry I should have followed up - this is why joining the Euro has never been a serious contention for the UK historically.
7. inbreda said...
and is that why brown has destroyed the value of the pound?
8. crunchy said...
5. paul - I was referring to the fact that it seems to be asumed that we want to join the euro now.
I had my suspicions but is this not a bit blatant?
9. down wave said...
I do not have a clue, but to be on the safe-side, I have just sold my wallet and purchased a wheelbarrow.
10. crunchy said...
7. inbreda said...and is that why brown has destroyed the value of the pound?
crunchy, With you on that.
The article is jumping the gun and I think that is important to know why. See my above comments please.
11. crunchy said...
Sorry to press on but are we seeing a deliberate run on the pound developing to force euro into saving us?
Would not suprise me!
12. greytornado said...
Japanese Uncle may well be right and the Euro may well be doomed to fail. Things then get really interesting - Take Brown for example, when he sold a big chunk of our gold reserves off at a rock bottom price - what did he do with the money he raised? Answer; he bought a big pile of Euros amongst other things. If the Euro fails; UK plc will then find that its reserves have largely gone down the toilet. It can be seen that because the reserves of one Country are largely the paper bank notes of another currency, the failure of one system could then cause a catastrophic knock on failure of other currencies.
13. luckyjim said...
Brown does not have the balls to join the Euro - this is the man who ducked out of an election when he had a double-digit lead in the polls.
But there is another scenario.
Many shops in Northern Ireland already accept payment in Euros (as do some large stores in London such as M&S). Employees in Northern Ireland working for larger Irish companies (such as Eircom) can choose to take their salary in pounds or euros. This practice pre-dates the euro and is logical when you think about it. A handfull of city workers are also paid in Euros. There is no reason why this could not spread.
What would you do if your employer offered you a big pay rise but you would have to take it in Euros instead of pounds? What if Tesco started accepting Euros ? (I'm not sure that they don't accept them already). A currency does not have to be legal tender to be widely adopted - Scottish bank notes are not legal tender (not even in Scotland) but shops happily accept them.
The UK could very easily become a dual-currency country without any formal adoption of the currency. And if the pound really turns to sh*t the Euro could take over.
14. shipbuilder said...
11. crunchy said...
"Sorry to press on but are we seeing a deliberate run on the pound developing to force euro into saving us?
Would not suprise me!"
LOL
15. crunchy said...
14. shipbuilder
Careful now! I am being serious. Look at the facts of late. I am not alone.
13. luckyjim said..."The UK could very easily become a dual-currency country without any formal adoption of the currency. And if the pound really turns to sh*t the Euro could take over"
If it happens I would see it as deliberate agenda.
16. Tom101 said...
Maybe some countries would like to join Sterling.... What would be the criteria there...?
17. rumble said...
@crunchy: "are we seeing a deliberate run on the pound developing to force euro into saving us?"
that theory has been on this site for a fair while.
18. crunchy said...
17. rumble
Where did the referendum go? They seemed to bend backwards to take that promise away from us.
Just because something has not happened yet, does not mean that it will not happen. HPCers should know that.
Printing money like it's going out of fashion.
STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED!