WHAT CRISIS? The so-called Euro Crisis.
Members’ views on the News
Italy and Spain are having to pay higher interest rates to borrow money. OK, but how has that become a “Eurozone Crisis” or, even more bizarrely, a “Euro Crisis”? Their interest rates were even higher before they joined the Eurozone and the euro itself jogs along, stronger now against sterling (e.g.) than when it was launched. Perception is all. Prejudice is all. Anglo-Saxon Euroscepticism seeks to translate over-indebtedness in a small Eurozone country into a financial crisis for the whole zone. It is self-fulfilling. A domino effect resulted. Sovereign debt is targeted country by country. But that is not a Euro crisis. However, the Eurozone is now so important in the economy of the whole world, that the whole world watches the unfolding saga.
The Eurosceptic press, Tory back benchers, and commentators chortle that the crisis in the Eurozone proves that we were clever not to adopt the euro. Our members are quite clear that it proves nothing of the sort. The Eurosceptics talk about a ”Euro Crisis”. We know that the crisis is nothing to do with the euro, as such.
Greece and Ireland and Italy may be having problems but they do not blame the euro and they do not want to leave the Eurozone. There are problems in the Eurozone but they are not problems with the currency. They are problems of too much debt and problems in servicing that debt.
Philip Goldberg says “The euro is not systemically flawed; it has just been lousily managed. A single currency needs at least integrated financial management.” Slowly that appears to be on its way.
Claude Kauffmann says “the government is blaming the euro and/or the Eurozone in order to obfuscate its own economic failures”. Len Avery has “personally told Cameron and Osborne that blaming the euro is crap!” He points out that it is sterling that has had to devalue, leaving ex-pats, like his sister-in-law, with less of a pension. “Hear, hear, Len!” says Veronica Stiastny. “I keep telling everyone this, but they are in denial till they get to the Continent and see the real difference. Also it costs every business in the UK so much more to import raw materials, our exports are not increasing anything like they should, and inflation is currently twice that in the Eurozone. Paradoxically, it is because the euro is strong, not weak that there are problems - especially as far as the US is concerned.”
Lynda Macdermott congratulated Len too: “I thought I was a lone voice banging on about this.” “Quite right Len,” writes Claude Kauffmann. “I have the same experience.”
Lynda calls for us to “get this message out to the papers in Surrey.” And Tom Spencer calls for us to be “out in the press asap”.
Len however reiterates our sad experience. “I have tried the Times, Telegraph, Surrey Gazette, none will publish the truth about Europe, they are owned by Sceptics. I tried BBC 4 at 7.30 a.m. and all you get is a recorded message about BBC Charities on an endless 3 minute tape, you can’t get a human. I have texted them through their Web Page.
“We have to get the British Government to tell the truth first. I have not seen anything from the European Movement supporting my argument. The Euro is NOT IN TROUBLE. Not according to the Financial Exchange Market.
“Just wait till the British try and take a European Summer Holiday. I doubt if a single U K Travel Agent will survive.”
Claude has written to Lord Patten, as chairman of the BBC Trust, about what we all see as the bias in several programmes. “In France, where I come from, the BBC is held in the highest regard and, during the war, it was the only source of reliable news……It saddens me now that the BBC’s coverage of European subjects has decreased dramatically….It saddens me further that the tone and superficiality of many BBC commentators denotes a marked Euroscepticism and indeed anti-Europeanism, particularly at this time that economic problems in southern European countries have become a “Eurozone crisis” or even a “Euro Crisis” in BBC-speak, which is entirely misleading.” The reply to Claude’s letter recommended that pro-Europeans should send their views to the BBC unit monitoring the extent and content of their international and European broadcasts. We should all take heed of this advice.
We would not be where we are if the UK had joined the Eurozone from the beginning. Several members believe that. Claude points out that a level playing field would have meant cheaper imports for the UK and Nick Brougham joins others in regretting that vetting was not enough to exclude Greece from the beginning. “I have little doubt”, he writes, “that if the core countries, Benelux, France, Germany (and the UK) had founded the euro and only permitted entry to others when a reasonable level of fiscal responsibility could be shown, the Euro Crisis would never have happened.”
So what should be our stance now that we have all these problems? John Preston and John Pincham think we should be more involved in helping others in the EU. “If the 27 were to get together… we all have something to learn from each other, to work together to solve the problems that are affecting us all” says the first John. “Love thy neighbour as thyself” is relevant, says the second. The UK threat to stop “the 26” from using EU institutions for their “treaty” must have appeared extraordinarily mean-spirited to the others.
To go with all these views of members, let me add the view of Peter Preston, former editor of the Guardian, writing in the Observer. He lists some of the Eurosceptic press comments on the Brussels veto. Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail blames Nick Clegg’s “fanatical devotion to Brussels…unable to see any wrong in the misjudgements, corruptions and idiocies of the EU”. The Telegraph saw “Cameron standing firm as his deputy runs”. The Sun talked about “sulking Clegg”. In Peter Preston’s view, pro-Europeans have to “meet fire with fire, scorn with scorn”. He’s surely right; reason is not enough. Writing to the Guardian or the FT does not engage the enemy. We have to take on the Mail and the Sun. We have to get our hands dirty.
KT
[Following Claude’s point about BBC bias I thought I would see whether Ofcom was monitoring the situation. I filled in the query form: “As a Europhile I feel strongly that there is bias in the BBC against the EU and the euro. Is this being monitored please?” I got a reply: “Do you mean ‘As a Ailurophile I feel strongly that there is bias in the BBC against the EU and the euro. Is this being monitored please?’”]
