Ten years of freedom

16th September 2002

A celebration of the tenth anniversary of the liberation of the British economy on 'Black Wednesday' 16th September 1992

It is ten years to the day since Britain left the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), a black day for federalists, but a liberation and new beginning for the British people.

As a direct result of the stupidity of those in thrall to the European Union the economy shrank by nearly four per cent and we suffered dramatic increases in interest rates, which reached 15%, the effect on mortgage repayments costing thousands their homes. Unemployment rose to 1.2 million, bankruptcies soared and countless businesses were destroyed. All this after just two years within the ERM

Since the day we left the British economy has been free to operate without the ridiculous constraints imposed upon those who remained, and who have now irrevocably signed away control over their economies by joining the single currency. We have seen a degree of economic success of which we could only dream while locked into the ERM:

• We have the fourth largest economy in the world
• We have more overseas assets than the rest of the EU combined

• Total inward investment to Britain from the rest of the world is by far the largest among the member states of the EU
• We have by far the lowest unemployment rate in the EU

As we celebrate our freedom we must resolve that we shall never sign up to the single currency which, as well as being an economic disaster for Britain, is in reality a political project, devised by those who want the independent, democratic member nations to become provinces of a single European state.

If the UK were to become a full member of the single currency, it would mean:

• Increased unemployment as we move towards eurozone levels, which are twice the rate of ours
• Full economic and monetary union, with harmonization of interest rates and later of taxation. This is likely to lead to VAT being charged on a wider range of goods including children's clothes, books, newspapers and new houses. An EU wide income tax is already being proposed
• The gold and currency reserves presently held by the Bank of England being transferred to the new central bank, located in Frankfurt
• The levers of financial control, previously used by our elected representatives to adjust the economy in accordance with the needs and wishes of the British electorate, being in the hands of central bankers and, eventually, of the central authority of the EU. This would include interest rates, taxation and borrowing levels
• Despite assurances from our Government, there would be a serious danger of UK taxpayers having to pay for the pensions of the French, the Germans and all those who have not made long term funded arrangements as we have in Britain

(September 2002)