IF ANYONE is unsure about the Euro currency they should look at the example of club football over the past 25 years.
In the late 70s early 80s our club sides dominated Europe. Then, after years of our fans causing criminal damage and GBH, then the deaths of Italian fans, we were kicked out and our football went into fast decline. When we were allowed back in we found our teams years behind the rest of Europe.
Now, after years of catching up, up to last week Manchester United were reigning European champions — with the help of some foreigners like Roy Keane, yes, but they are now the biggest and most profitable club side in the world.
This could not have been done without a European platform, proving that when given a level playing field we can do well. That is what the Euro currency does, it gives a level playing field for every business and individual citizen to compete.
Just because every team plays by the same rules it does not mean you have to have the same manager or playing styles.
Just as there are people who do not want the Euro now, when the first European Cup started our FA told our clubs not to enter because it was beneath us. Would they say that now?
In the 1950s, Austin and Morris were about the biggest car manufacturers in Europe, far bigger than Renault and Volkswagen. The short-sighted management concentrated on selling to the Commonwealth and not Europe; they are history now.
The Europeans are not anti-British, after all football was invented by the British and Europeans have taken it to their hearts and Italy has just joined our Rugby Unions Five Nations.
It is the same MPs that tell us they believe in the principle of Britain as a Union that are against the principle of Europe as a Union, the same arguments work in favour for both.
When we take our pound coins to Scotland it does not matter if the pound is weak against the dollar and this is how the Eurozone works. It is the Commonwealth we should be pulling out of not Europe.
The next time a politician tells you that Britain is better off with the pound ask him/her why we had a £28-billion trade deficit last year and as an oil producing nation we have a national debt of £350-billion on which we pay interest? Why there will be foreign tourists bringing trade to the South West from the Eurozone this year?
Bryan Gillard
19 Crockern Tor Road
Okehampton