Why join the Euro?

James Irvine

Teviot Scientific Consultancy, Edinburgh
Teviot Agriculture, Culyrbaggan Farm, Comrie, Perthshire

(Filed 10 June 2003)
www.land-care.org.uk

Yesterday Chancellor Gordon Brown made a statement in the Westminster Parliament about whether or not, if and when the UK should join the Euro. What he said was a bit of all things to all men.

In his view joining the Euro would be a good thing in principle, but the time was not right for now.

Clearly a promotional campaign was about to begin with the Labour propaganda machine getting underway, starting off with a promised Tony Blair/Gordon Brown double act to convince the populace that the two get on well together and that they are as one in terms of their thinking on the Euro.

While there are the famous five economic tests that Gordon Brown has been talking about for the past 5 years (and to date he tells us that we have only been able to pass one of them), there is the massive amount of political baggage that goes with the question of joining the Euro.

The Labour spin doctors will now be getting to work to try and persuade us that Britain will be able to get a fair deal out of Brussels if Britain joins - that Britain will be able to have a strong influence on how the European Union develops in the future. At present there are 15 member states and this will shortly increase to 25. Ever tried to influence a committee of 15 or 25 who are disinclined to listen?

Those within Euroland state that they want the UK to join them. Certainly within the realm of agriculture and fishing they appear to have an odd way of showing it. Thanks to the EC these industries, that are so important to the UK and to Scotland in particular, have been disseminated.

The profound uncertainty of the Common Agriculture Policy Mid Term Review (CAP-MTR) has been intensely damaging to farming, and the likelihood is that any conclusion reached by the unelected EC commissioner is going to be bad news for the UK's suckler cow farmers (those who produce the calves that create quality beef)(1). Beef production is one of Scotland's farming flagships (2).

John Davidson writing for Land-Care has given us a clear description as to what has happened to the Scottish fishing industry (3). The Fife Fish Producers Organisation did likewise (4)

Previously there was an economic argument that UK farming would be better off joining the Euro because the exchange rate was not in our favour. But look - all that has recently changed to our advantage. Personally as a farmer I would rather live with the vicissitudes of a fluctuating exchange rate than come under further control of a bureaucracy that tries to work to a formula that that is supposed to fit all but manifestly can't, and follows a policy of so-called "sustainabiltiy" that is basically flawed (5, 6).

Are we really to believe the hype that will come from the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown duet, backed by Alastair Campbell's media chorus, that all will be better if the UK joins the Euro and takes on the associated political baggage that will certainly go with it?

www.land-care.org.uk

References

1. Editorial (2003). Impact of the Mid-Term Review of the CAP on the Red Meat Sector in Scotland.
(Filed 23 May 2003, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view)

2. Editorial (2003). Estimated Contribution of the Red Meat Sector to the Scottish Economy.
(Filed 23 May 2003, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view)

3. Davidson, John (2003). The Fall and Fall of the Scottish Fishing Industry
(Filed 29 April, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view)

4. Fife Fish Producers Organisation (2003). The Situation of, and in, our Fishing Communities
(Filed 28 April, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view)

5. Irvine, James (2003). Sustainability in Agriculture
(Filed 7 May 2003, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view)

6. MacKerron, D. K. L., Hillman R. J. and Duncan, M. J. (2003). Sustainability in Agriculture.
http://www.scri.sari.ac.uk/Document/AnnReps/02Indiv/06Sustai.pdf (120KB PDF file).

MENU