Gordon, Thank EU!  

Thank heavens for Gordon Brown. Ok, I admit they are not the most widely used five words in the English vocabulary, but I sincerely mean them. And to be precise, I extend the thanks to his immediate advisors as Chancellor, including Ed Balls, for devising a formula that would effectively keep Britain out of the Eurozone. Faced with a Prime Minister obsessed with embracing the European project at full speed, the Blair Labour Government did indeed commit the UK to joining the single currency, but with five tests (that were almost certainly never likely to be met) placed firmly in the way by a sceptical Mr Brown, it wasn't going to happen in the immediate future.   And after the events in Ireland, we should be very thankful for that. Of course, the argument goes (and I have some sympathy with the ‘theory') for the EU to be a proper single market, it has to operate a single currency....