05-06-2008
Expert mulls Britain's place in the eurozone
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An expert has considered whether or not Britain would have enjoyed significant economic success if it had adopted the euro ten years ago.
Sean O'Grady claims that Britain could have become a prominent member of the eurozone if it had embraced the single currency a decade previously.
Writing for the Independent, the newspaper's economics editor suggests that the 1997 Labour victory in the general election was so great that Tony Blair "would have won a referendum on joining the single currency if he'd held one within the first six months of taking office".
The European Central Bank (ECB) has celebrated its first decade in existence this week and Mr O'Grady believes that Labour "botched their place in history" by failing to adopt the euro when it was first launched.
"Had we been in the eurozone all along, European interest rates, and much else, would not be as they have been, nor as they are today," he explained. "To assume so is to neglect the powerful voice the UK would have commanded at the ECB and ministerial councils."
Analysts have praised the ECB for its effective management of the eurozone during the recent global credit crunch and are discussing the possibility that it will overtake the US dollar as the world's next reserve currency.
An article by William Buiter, professor of European political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the Financial Times states that "there is no excuse for Britain not to join the euro" and claims that the case for abandoning sterling in favour of the euro "has never been clearer".