ON THE SINGLE MARKET AND TAX

David Smith, Economics Editor, Sunday Times - 'Focus' feature, 20.6.04:

"Euroscepticism has become the intelligent option. There is nothing irrational about it. For the first time in half a century, Britain is doing demonstrably better than the rest of Europe. It used to be that we feared missing out on prosperity by not integrating more closely with Europe.

...Studies suggest that the impact of withdrawal could be modest and might even produce net gains for Britain. The pro-European argument that more than 3m jobs would be lost if we left the EU is based on the ridiculous notion that all trade with European countries would cease and there would be no diversion of trade to markets elsewhere"

Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium's Prime Minister. European Voice (an 'Economist' group paper) reported, 12.2.04:

"Finally, 50 year-old Verhofstadt favours the EU being financed in future by 'direct Community funding'. "I avoid saying 'a European tax' as I don't want the press scaring the readers away", he smiles.

Jacques Delors, former European Commission President, quoted in Commission publication: 'From Single Market to European Union', 1992

"Europe cannot attain political union... ...unless it is in control of its economic destiny. That is why we need an organised economic area.

Michael Heseltine MP and former Deputy Prime Minister

"...the Single Market is over-regulated, over-protected over-centralised. We now have Eurosclerosis, we burden our businesses with extra costs, preventing labour markets from working properly". (1994)

Katie Wood, Travel Editor, The Sun, 16.5.98
"Scrapping duty free will throw 23,000 Brit jobs down the drain"

One thing is for sure though. The Eurocrats in Brussels will not have to worry about losing their own cheap booze. For under the Vienna Conventions, EU officials and embassy staff will still be allowed to buy goods at duty free prices.

ON THE SINGLE CURRENCY

Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, former French & German leaders, quoted in International Herald Tribune, 14.10.97

One must never forget that monetary union, which the two of us were the first to propose more than a decade ago is ultimately a political project. It aims to give a new impulse to the historic movement towards union of the European states. Monetary union is a federative project that needs to be accompanied and followed by other steps."

Hans Tietmeyer, German Bundesbank President, quoted in Bill Jamieson's Britain a Global Future, 1997

A European Currency will lead to member nations transferring their sovereignty over financial and wage policies as well as in monetary affairs. It is an illusion to think that states can hold onto their autonomy over taxation policies'

Napoleon Bonaparte, who integrated Europe by force, with a comment of possible relevance to the authority of the European Central Bank that will run the Single Currency (1815):

When a government is dependent for money upon bankers, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.

William Rees-Mogg, The Times, 29.4.98

The Euro is being sold to the British people rather successfully at present, by bogus argument that used to belong to the Marxists, that of historical inevitability....

...The Nazis used the same propaganda. They believed in the triumph of the will of dictatorship over the weak confusion of democracy. The 'thousand-year Reich' lasted twelve years. So much for inevitability.

Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Monetary Union is not needed to achieve the advantages of a free trade zone. On the contrary an artificially contrived monetary union might actually reduce the volume of trade and would certainly increase the level of unemployment" (1992)

Instead of increasing intra-European harmony and global peace, the shift to EMU and political integration that would follow it would be more likely to lead to increased conflicts within Europe and between Europe and the United States". (Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 1997)

Eddie George, Bank of England Governor, The Sun, 3.4.98

I don't believe we are talking about the whole thing blowing up, but my view is it will cause quite serious tensions....

Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, The Sun, 8.5.98

It is difficult to see how monetary union can succeed....

Mike Lazenby, Director of Britain's largest building society, the Nationwide: The Sun, 28.5.98

"It is a myth that entry will bring cheaper mortgages... ...there is nothing to say that joining EMU [the euro] will push mortgages down to European levels - we could see them rise slightly in the short term"

ON THE ISSUE OF BRITAIN'S MEMBERSHIP OF THE EU & EMU

Sir Peter Marshall, KCMG, address at Royal Commonwealth Society, 23.3.98

Hence if the EU has to be sold to the British public, the economic arguments have to be very delicately balanced. It is necessary to be "economical with the truth"

David Smith, Economics Editor, Sunday Times, in Eurofutures on the UK Single Currency 'opt-out'

Or more correctly, the freedom to 'opt in' at a time of its choosing...

Adair Turner, CBI Director General, quoted by Freedom Today, Aug/Sept 1998

The European public has not been fully prepared for the likely impact of monetary union. I think they've been given false assurances that EMU itself will directly create jobs and cure unemployment - an assertion without intellectual justification

Roy Denman, former Commission representative in Washington, to an essentially American readership - International Herald Tribune, 14.10.98

[on EMU] "By that time (2002) a new entrant will be required to accept not just a single currency but a degree of harmonisation of fiscal and economic policy toward political union that the British electorate might not stomach"

"The essential difficulty is that no British government has ever been frank with its people about Europe. Robert Schuman, on May 9, 1950, spoke of "economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe". This is what the European adventure has been about.

Janet Bush, Economics Editor, The Times (1996)

Could Britain survive outside [the EMU system]?
...Yes, and would probably thrive
Webmaster's note: The Economic & Monetary Union system is the 'heart' of Europe's domination of Britain