Can you imagine a world in which Britain traded its beloved pound for the Euro? Some people can – including Lord Heseltine. Even in the mire we find ourselves in now with respect to Europe, there are plenty of people who think we can and should join the single currency as soon as possible.
If you look back at the news stories that were floating around towards the end of 2011, you will find lots of stories from various commentators, politicians and other people with knowledge of the situation in Europe. Many of them point to the ‘common sense’ approach of Britain joining the Euro – and some of them would prefer it to be sooner rather than later.
But as we have seen a lot can happen in six months. Now Greece is on the verge of losing its status and going back to the drachma – something that would have been unthinkable a few short months ago. Strangely, if you look up the question ‘should Britain join the Euro’ now, there are no recent results in the timeline from those same people that wanted it so badly a few short months ago.
There is the thought that if Greece crashes out of the single currency, it may actually fare better for doing so. The initial consequences would be devastating but soon after it is thought things would pick up. If this happened there would be a big opportunity for other countries to ditch the single currency too. After this event everything would unravel – and there would be no single currency for Britain to join anyway.
Many people now believe that the single currency is doomed to fail. It has been tried several times before in history and every time it has worked when times are good. When times turn and are tougher to handle the single currency has failed – so why should things be any different this time? Indeed it may be the most spectacular failure we have ever seen.