Mandelson downplays UK euro entry

[dipsydoodle]

Lord Mandelson has said the prospects of a newly re-elected Labour government seeking to join the European single currency were "not strong".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8150410.stm

Strange that he didn't add "the prospects of a newly re-elected Labour government are also not strong"

[T_i_B]

1. Even if Labour did win the next election...

They would face an enormous task if they wanted to get Britain into the Euro. If you want an idea of what pro-Europeans face if they want to persuade the majority of Brits to join the Single currency in a referendum you only have to look at the European election results this year.

The first thing about the European elections was that the vast majority of the parties standing were either Euro-sceptic or downright anti-EU. Besides the sceptics you had Labour (who are lukewarm at best on the subject) and the Liberal Democrats, who are openly and unashamedly Europhile.

Labour did badly and the Lib Dems hardly set the world on fire. On the other hand UKIP came second behind the Euro-sceptic Tories. Add in the fringe parties vote and you can see that the EU is not exactly very popular.

To be honest it’s about time that folk in Brussels took a look at public hostility to the EU, listened to peoples concerns and started changing their ways a little if you ask me. Only then will they be able to persuade people to support the EU.

[TheBigotBasher]

2. Why would there be a referendum?

If a decision was taken to ever join the Euro, I very much doubt that teh UK would have one.

I some how do not believe that the UK will join anyway. The Rolling stone article about Goldman Sachs could easily have been written about the UK economy over the last 16 years. It gained from being outside of the ERM / then Euro but a part of Europe. It could look both ways at the US and the EU. Hence why London became the Financial centre of Europe. The UK economy was based on selling the World the bubbles.