Why the United Kingdom should join the Euro

After considering how I spend my hard earned money it dawned upon me that no more than 10% of my monthly expenditure is in physical currency. The remaining 90% is conducted via bank transfers, direct debits, credit and debit cards, stored value and Oyster cards.

With this realisation, and the inexorable direction that day to day life is headed in that will in my opinion mean that in a matter of a few years I will not conduct any transactions in physical currency.

So other than a symbol at the top of a bank statement, ‘£’, what does the pound mean? If it is a national symbol, surely this will be difficult to maintain once it disappears from day to day life for the average person – if we are not there already.

If it is for economic independence, any amount of discussion and debate can be held about how independent a westphalian nation-state is in today’s world. With foreign governments owning your currency, and the lifeblood of your economy being reliant on regional and global trade, does anyone have economic independence?

So, the position I have arrived at is that the United Kingdom should transition to the Euro (€), and take a leadership position in Europe with regard to banking, finance, stock markets, insurance and trade. To lead Europe in a unified position for all of these areas, seeking to retain the waning global leadership of the City of London and the Square Mile. That is if the Euro countries will have the UK.

Inertia and political capital

After experiencing the worst electoral results in 90 years, including coming third in the European elections behind the Conservatives and the United Kingdom Independence Party, an anti-European party, Gordon Brown continues to stagger on as a zombie leader.

No matter what his hopes or expectations are, or those of his supporters, he does not have enough political capital to break free of the inertia that his premiership and his government is in. No matter what party you support it is no good having a national government in this state for any period of time, even more so on the brink of recession turning into depression.

I believe that the best thing for the country is for there to be a new prime minister, with or without a general election – we have one of those coming in under a year regardless.

Council and European elections

On Thursday 4 June 2009 it was polling day in 35 counties and for the United Kingdom representatives in the European Parliament. This was coming on the back of the MP’s expenses scandal and the Labour party leadership crisis.

Expectations were that there would be a large and strong turnout, coupled with a protest vote against the establishment. However, in my local area in Essex, only 32% of the population who were registered to vote bothered to participate in democratic elections. So a rough mental calculation taking into account people under the age of 18, those not entitled or registered to vote, means that by my maths only 1 in 4 (25%) of the population voted.

Being an Australian and from a country where voting is compulsory and required by law I am astounded at this lack of participation and involvement in politics.

Political and societal problems in the United Kingdom do not stop at the non-compulsory elections. This country still does not have proportional representation – where each electorate is approximately the same number of voters. The United Kingdom also still uses ‘first past the post’ voting instead of preferential voting where you mark one candidate only.

I have already written to my MP expressing my desire for compulsory voting, preferential voting and proportional representation. I have lived in the United Kingdom for ten years, and have voted at every single election in that period. From this point onwards I am only prepared to engage in political debate or conversation with someone if they vote.

Governing Europe – TMA 3

This is my third assignment for the Governing Europe course. The question was:

What do developments in the European Union’s financial and budgetary processes indicate about the way in which the EU is governed?

As shown below is the tag cloud of the 2,000 word essay I submitted.

Governing Europe – TMA 2

This is my second assignment for the Governing Europe course. The question was:

Do developments in ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ mean that countries of the European Union can no longer exercise ‘national sovereignty’ over this sphere of policy?

As shown below is the tag cloud of the 2,000 word essay I submitted.