Wednesday 12 May 2010

There's no pleasing the Eurocrats

You might expect some gratitude from the Eurozone that Britain has agreed to give some support to the Greek bailout.

The Financial Times reports that the reaction in Europe has been quite the opposite:
There were signs of a backlash on Tuesday against Britain for refusing to take part in the eurozone’s €750bn rescue plan with a senior French policymaker suggesting Europe would think hard about coming to the UK’s help in a sterling crisis.
...
Mr Jouyet, a former Europe minister who is close to President Nicolas Sarkozy, indicated that Britain could expect no guaranteed assistance from the eurozone.

“The British are most definitely going to be targeted given the political difficulties they have,” he told Europe1 radio.
According to the FT,
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said there was increasing anti-British feeling across the EU, fuelled by the belief that Britain had allowed its currency to depreciate to gain a competitive advantage.

“People are fed up with the British; we are deeply unpopular,” Mr Grant said, warning that it would not be easy for the UK to find allies to help it on issues such as trying to revise an EU directive on hedge funds.

“Nobody will owe us any favours,” he said.

Mr Jouyet added there was now a three-speed Europe: the eurozone; Poland, Sweden and other countries sympathetic to the euro; and Britain.

And why, exactly, should we be 'sympathetic to the euro'? Why should we need to curry favour?

The sooner we can extricate ourselves from this diabolical club, the better.

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