More Euro Madness (June 7th, commonsense-uk) Earlier this week it was announced that Latvia, which joined the European Union in 2004, has successfully applied to join the Eurozone meaning that, as of January 1st 2014 the Euro will become that country’s new currency. They will thus become the 18th member of the Eurozone and one cannot help but wonder why. Why would they want to adopt a currency that has been plagued by controversy and chaos throughout its relatively short life and is seemingly doomed to end in disaster? Actually, “they” does not mean Latvia as a whole since only 38% of the country voted in favour of the Euro. Still, as we all know, the European Union is no friend of democracy and once European bureaucrats decide to do something they usually get their way no matter what the electorate may think or desire. So no surprises there. The big concern however is that many international economic experts doubt whether Latvia has actually fulfilled all the relevant criteria for membership of the Eurozone (shades of Greece here) so what on earth are they thinking of? Are they not inviting further trouble? If I were one of the 62% of Latvians opposed to the Euro I would be pretty miffed to put it lightly. I wouldn’t for the life of me be able to understand why my Prime Minister whole heartedly and enthusiastically voted to be part of a club whose members are suffering from record unemployment and national debt. I would wonder why my country would want to join the other lemmings as they hurtle towards the cliff’s edge. No, this European madness shows no sign of abating, and even though the United Kingdom will undoubtedly suffer when the Euro and ultimately the Union itself collapses, I still thank our former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, for refusing to allow the UK to adopt the Euro back in the late 1990s.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:50:57 +0000