In defence of Gordon Brown for saving us from the euro
Tony Blair may have won three General Elections, but history will judge Gordon Brown to have had a more positive impact on the future of Britain than Blair.
I know that is a fairly bold claim. But the more and more the Euro crisis unfolds the more I become persuaded that Gordon Brown was more influential to the future prosperity of Britain.
This week we saw more from Alastair Campbell's diaries. It is clear that back in 2003 Tony Blair and Campbell saw Brown's stance on the euro as deliberately thwarting Blair (extract from the Guardian):
On 9 June, 2003 Gordon Brown announced that Britain had not passed the five tests he had set to assess whether Britain should join the euro
Tuesday, June 10 2003
GB was throwing in all this stuff about the housing market and TB couldn't see how it was going to be possible to move on it before an election. We went through likely difficult questions. I said what do you say to the question - "how long will it take to remove the obstacles to the euro?" "The best way would be to get out a gun, shoot the obstacle and then have a reshuffle," he said. He was no longer in any doubt that GB was still slowing it down deliberately. "It's the dead hand, the paralysis of progress."
We now know that joining the euro would have been anything but progress for Britain.
Fast forward a few years and Brown was instrumental in saving the world's financial institutions.
Britain's economy in the euro would be struggling far more than it is at the moment.
History will be kinder to Gordon Brown than contemporary reporting, but maybe its time we start giving Brown some of the credit he rightly deserves.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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Prosperity and Gordon Brown are oxymorons of each other.
Amazingly, even though we are not in the euro, we have been on the hook for all kinds of bailouts already and Cameron has had to intervene to get us out of them.
Labour is the party that promised us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, ignored us and signed it anyway.
Ruined by Labour, all the UKs gold sold off at rock bottom prices, the UK economy needs a decade to get its breath back. Labour will be out of power for a generation.
Your title and assessment, i believe, are slightly misleading
First, regardless of what currency the average brit carries in his pocket he will ALWAYS be a linked to the health and future of the euro currency, simply due to the size and nature of the relationship with the trade bloc and currency zone; there is no escape.
Second, If Britain DID join the euro the currency would have certainly been destroyed by the sheer amount of debt the original (and subsequent) bailouts of the financial sector saddled you with. the following chaos and economic turmoil would undoubtedly leave much of the world worse off than it is now and certainly a less bearable place. by setting up those meaningless tests which needed to be fulfilled before joining the EZ would be even considered Mr Brown ended up saving the Euro from Britain-- not the other way round.
Your title and assessment, i believe, are slightly misleading
First, regardless of what currency the average brit carries in his pocket he will ALWAYS be a linked to the health and future of the euro currency, simply due to the size and nature of the relationship with the trade bloc and currency zone; there is no escape.
Second, If Britain DID join the euro the currency would have certainly been destroyed by the sheer amount of debt the original (and subsequent) bailouts of the financial sector saddled you with. the following chaos and economic turmoil would undoubtedly leave much of the world worse off than it is now and certainly a less bearable place. by setting up those meaningless tests which needed to be fulfilled before joining the EZ would be even considered Mr Brown ended up saving the Euro from Britain-- not the other way round.