Can Britain Join the Euro? Political Opportunities and Impediments

The euro is as much a political as it is an economic project. After all, one of its aims is to promote the unity of Europe so that any repeat of the conflagrations that scarred the European continent in the first half of the twentieth century becomes unthinkable. And certainly so far as Britain is concerned, both past and future decisions have been and will be influenced by political as well as economic considerations. For example, the policy of ‘wait and see’ developed by the Conservative government under John Major was the only stance that could unite a cabinet that included some who believed in further European integration and others who believed that having your own currency was integral to the maintenance of national sovereignty. It certainly was not simply the product of concerns about differences between British and other European trade cycles. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.