Doomsayers Wail That a Euro Break-Up Would Trigger Armageddon. That¿s What They Said About Us Leaving the ERM
Over 13 years as an MEP, Daniel Hannan has witnessed first-hand how Brussels works. Now he has written a forensic analysis of why it’s rotten to the core. Yesterday, in part one of our exclusive serialisation, he laid bare the EU’s utter contempt for democracy. Today, he examines the rise — and imminent fall — of the euro . . .
How did so many clever people get it so wrong? The flaws in the euro project were visible at the outset. It was never going to be possible to jam widely divergent economies into a single monetary policy.
Yet, in every national parliament, in every central bank, in every university faculty, in every BBC editorial conference, there was a collective suspension of disbelief.
Why? What were supporters of the single currency thinking?
Sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t so much a case of them liking the euro but more that they disliked the people who opposed it. They characterised opponents as xenophobes and Blimps, fogeys and Little Englanders, in contrast to their own image of themselves as progressive, cultured, free-thinkers.
