Save the groat
“And I say to ye, we must not let them take away the groat, for we will not be British without the groat…” Blah, blah, blah. If there is one refrain that I am heartily sick of it is that of the pea-brains in the Tory party and their less bright cousins in the UKIP about the importance of keeping the pound.
Have they been asleep for the past twenty years? Do they really imagine that Britain, or any other country, can run its economy unaffected by the rest of the planet? Do they really believe Britain can sail on its own, disregarding Europe as though still running a world-spanning empire? The decisions of Berlin and Paris — and Washington and Wall Street — affect our economy now as much as they will once we are part of the single currency.
It is even more blood-boiling to hear them wax poetic about how precious the pound is “to all Britons.” Even Slimemeister TB echoes this line every now and again, saying how he feels emotional about the Queen’s face on our money.
Well, count me out. I don’t give a damn for the Queen’s face on the pound note. What is important is that money is worth something, not whether a sour-looking Anglo-German parasite (nothing personal, ma’am) is printed on it.
One truly depressing characteristic of some at least of the English is the widespread antipathy to foreigners (as the infamous old phrase has it, “wogs begin at Calais”). Having spent a couple of centuries throwing their weight around all over the globe, it has been difficult for them to come to terms with the UK’s status as has-been and a second-rate (I’m being generous here) power.
It’s time for even the most hidebound reactionaries to face up to the fact that the Empire is dead, buried and rotted away; the pound is a currency, no more than that. Battleships will not sail into foreign ports to defend it. The future of Europe is greater integration: the alternative, which no one seems to mention now, is a Europe of internal friction and ultimately war. Until the latter half of the 20th Century, that was European history.
One lesson everyone with sense drew from the Second World War was that another European war was unthinkable. The economies of Britain, Germany and France were wrecked by the War — another war would be devastating. The formation of the European Union, or the European Economic Community as it was called, has pulled Europe together. Differences are dealt with by discussion and negotiation rather than by getting out the heavy bombers.
Unfortunately, the British government of the time didn’t want to get involved, and thereafter Anglo-French friction (well, Anglo-de Gaulle friction, anyway) kept the UK out of the then EEC until Heath took us in in the early Seventies (1971 was it? — I am working from memory). And that was the last time Britain had a sensible policy regarding Europe…
If we listen to the Little Englanders (and believe me, they sound particularly absurd if you’re not English), we’ll get to keep the pound — and become economically ever more irrelevant as the Euro zone becomes stronger and more prosperous. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. (The bizarre Tory response to questioning on this line speaks for itself: “Britain won’t be isolated in Europe. There’s Denmark…”)
Or we can join in wholeheartedly, stop panting on Washington’s lead and help make Europe a prosperous, democratic Union. And the first step is to throw our lot in with the Euro, and get rid of inbred German royalty from our currency.
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