Douglas Carswell's Blog

Eurozone crisis - "what all the dammed fools said has come to pass"

"What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the dammed fools said would happen has come to pass" - Lord Melbourne

Melbourne's words came to mind as I watched the Chancellor on television yesterday telling us why the Euro is "here to stay", good for growth, blah blah .... 

For two years, this blog - alongside others - has been patiently explaining why Greece will leave the Euro (its maths, not sentiment).  And why default-and-decouple are less bad than bailout-and-borrow.

Throughout that time, the Treasury - cheered on by many financial journalists and the BBC - have been committing ever larger sums to a disastrous policy that will only make the inevitable Greek bust up bigger.  It is an approach to this crisis that carries about as much credibility as a Greek government bond.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Treasury is still fixated with the idea that the Euro equals prosperity.  When Treasury officals talk positively about the Euro, they seem to be speaking of some imaginary currency that exists only in the minds of officials.  Not the actually Euro that is ruining the lives of millions across Europe today.   

The question for the rest of us is no longer Greek Euro membership.  It is can Italy, Spain and France remain in a currency union with a German-Austrian-Dutch bloc.  And having escaped from Europe's recessionary mechanism, how quickly can our trade partners return to prosperity?

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