Against the Euro

A new poll suggests that a majority of the British people would not vote for the Euro:

The survey of 1,000 adults revealed that just 23% would vote "yes" to joining the European single currency, while 6% said they were unsure.

Hardly surprising, really. For some people joining the Euro would be a disaster – further loss of our national political autonomy at a time when maximum room for political movement is crucial, and also when the zeitgeist is towards greater national and regional autonomy rather than increasing international homogenisation.

Yet for other people, the main reason why they don’t want to transfer to the Euro is because they don’t understand what it is for. I’d guess that the majority of those who oppose the Euro do so partly because of some (perhaps irrational) commitment to the pound, but also because no-one has bothered to explain to them why they might want to switch from the pound to the Euro.

Which is typical of the arrogance of the EU. They don’t seem to see the need to explain to the poor citizens of the member states exactly what they are getting from being part of the European Union. No, let me rephrase that – they don’t seem to deem the poor citizens of the member states worthy of an explanation of what the EU does and why they should be demanding more commitment from us. They appear to think that we should just sit back and not question; we should make the assumption that whatever the EU does is in our best interests. Rather than simply in the interests of their back pockets and the fabled and reviled EU gravy train.

Still, whatever the reasons for people rejecting the concept of the Euro, I’m happy enough that people in this country would go the way of the Irish in their referendum and reject the Euro if it was put to us in a referendum. But therein lies the danger:

Last month, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the UK was "closer than ever" to joining the euro and that the "people who matter" in British politics were contemplating giving up the pound.

For “people who matter” read Gordon Brown and his cadre of Europhile sycophants.

Because that is the danger. Given the arrogance of the Brown administration, the EU, and Brown’s seemingly deep fear of any sort of election, there may well not be a referendum for us. In fact, poll results like this one are likely to make a referendum on the EU even less likely.

Under the current government, there is a real danger that we will wake up one morning and find that our elected leaders have made is part of a European super-state without recourse to elections, referendums or even any kind of public debate. And regardless of whether you want to be at the heart of Europe or on the outside looking in, you should want to have that public debate.

This poll shows that the Europhiles have a lot of work to do if they want to make the case for the Euro and, in line with that, a case for further European integration. They should, if they truly believe what they want is the right course of action, make that case. Rather than ignoring the weight of public opinion and plowing on with further moves into the EU project.