Three Reasons for Britain to Stay Out of the European Single Currency

There are many valid reasons why the United Kingdom will benefit by staying outside the Single currency Eurozone, and maintaining Sterling as our national currency. I offer the three reasons below as a few of those reasons. I believe a moments thought will provide the reader with many other reasons for not adopting the Euro.

1. The loss of Sterling would bring with it a significant loss of national identity, and a loss in national confidence. National identity is in the national psyche in some way connected with the national currency. There is still resentment and a feeling of being cheated among the older generation concerning decimalisation, an event which occurred nearly forty years ago. To change currencies again would simply stir up similar feelings among the present generation.

2. The loss of Sterling would bring with it a substantial loss of economic control over our own destinies. The ability to set our interest rates would be assumed by a central bank, and their would be the subsequent need to submit to the ‘One size fits all’ approach of the European economic superstate.

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   The Eurozone extends over a large number of countries, each with their own unique approach to life and work. Each country has a slightly different economic mix of rural, industrial, and service industries, and each of these different economic sectors will have different needs at different times, in different countries. The large the Eurozone becomes, the more difficult it becomes to govern it as a single economic entity. The United Kingdom has a significantly different economy, and set of working practices to many states on mainland Europe, if interest rates must be set in the Eurozone then it is likely that the UK will suffer, as the rates will be set to benefit the majority, and not those with the most different economies. We have already had a taste of this with the ERM debacle of the 1990’s. Why return to something which has already proved itself a failure.

3. Any change to the Euro from Sterling would be prohibitively expensive. It would cost billions of £ or € to implement, it would involve an extensive advertising campaign to explain the change to the nation. The cost to business would be enormous, and would almost certainly need to be subsidised by the taxpayer. At a time when national debt is ballooning out of control already, the very last thing we should be considering is a change of this sort, especially as there is no compelling economic argument for adopting the Euro. We have an excellent well respected currency of our own, the retention of Sterling should be actively supported by the British government and people.