Eurozone crisis: Death of the euro need not be a disaster. By Dominic SandbrookUPDATED: 11:47 GMT, 12 December 2011 A few weeks from now, it will be 40 years since Edward Heath signed the Treaty of Accession that sealed Britain’s membership of the European Community, the ancestor of today’s European Union. When Sailor Ted was scrawling his signature that day in January 1972, Europe seemed the future. It represented international brotherhood, peaceful idealism and the triumph of the free market. Centuries of splendid aloofness were over, and Britain was part of one big happy family. Four decades on, the position could hardly be more different. After using Britain’s veto to block a European treaty that would have marked the triumph of Franco-German plans for greater financial convergence, David Cameron flew home yesterday virtually isolated in Europe. Enlarge I know you're all tired but smile. Perhaps never before has the gulf between European ambitions and British interests yawned wider.
More from Dominic Sandbrook... The message was clear. Euro debt crisis: Who is next, why is it happening and what does it mean for you? Unhappy union: The euro is in danger of falling apart if powerhouses like Spain, Italy or France hit trouble Just in case you hadn't heard, Europe is in crisis. A big old nasty debt crisis that eurozone leaders are desperately trying to solve. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already gone crawling to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for multi-billion-euro bailouts.
Now economists and commentators fear contagion may spread to Italy, Spain and, more worrying still questions have been asked about France, the euro area's second biggest economy. Here, we take a look at what's happening and run the rule over the teetering big guns. What's happening? European leaders have met in Brussels to thrash out a plan to halt the worsening debt situation in Greece and try and stop other nations being sucked in. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has told his continental counterparts to 'get a grip' of the crisis. Why are euro nations in so much trouble? Who's next? Italy Spain France.
How George Orwell could have predicted the euro folly. George Orwell saw it coming The subject of Europe, alas for David Cameron, is not going away. Iain Duncan Smith has warned that he will not vote against his Eurosceptic principles again, while campaigners have launched a second petition to have a referendum discussed in Parliament. As Old Holborn puts it: “Aw, they didn't do what we asked them to.
So let's do what the EU itself does. It won’t go away because the issues are timeless. In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. The only difference between now and a half-century ago is that the intelligentsia have grown much more powerful, taking effective control of the BBC, the churches, academia and schools, and those vast areas where the state now does the churches' old job – mentoring, caring and connecting. This mentality explains much of the drive towards European integration.
Take this piece, by one of the people who ran the Yes campaign in the AV referendum. But as for a “hate-fest”? Eurozone markets fall AGAIN as Italy's borrowing rates hit record high. Italy's yields almost double previous monthFTSE claws its way up after 0.5% fallTen-year yield above 7% 'unsustainable' threshold Hungary credit rating downgraded to 'junk status' By Hugo Duncan Updated: 21:31 GMT, 25 November 2011 Gloomy prediction: Jacques Attali says the euro has a 'one in two' chance of collapsing in the coming month Britain was last night planning for the collapse of the eurozone as Spain weighed up a bailout that could cost UK taxpayers £5billion. The Government is preparing for the biggest mass default in history and the break-up of the single currency bloc.
Analysts warned that euro meltdown would wreak havoc in the banking system and plunge the global economy back into recession. Whitehall sources said contingency plans are being drawn up – and indicated that the longer the euro limps on, the more time Britain has to prepare. Fears are mounting that Greece will be forced to default on its debts as the crisis threatens to sink Spain and Italy. United Kingdom 2.22% Analyst’s Longtime Skepticism on Euro Gains Traction. Europe's four big dilemmas. Death of a currency as eurogeddon approaches. This has caused remaining international confidence in the euro to evaporate, and even German bunds to lose their "risk free" status. The crisis is no longer confined to the sinners of the south. Suddenly, no-one wants to hold euro denominated assets of any variety, and that includes what had previously been thought the eurozone safe haven of German bunds.
Investors have gone on strike. The Americans are getting their money out as fast as they decently can. British banks have stopped lending to all but their safest eurozone counterparts, and even those have been denied access to dollar funding. But almost anything is going to look preferable to a currency which might soon be assigned to the dustbin of history.
What we are witnessing is awesome stuff – the death throes of a currency. Contingency planning is in progress throughout Europe. What they are preparing for is the biggest mass default in history. They need to wake up fast; it's happening before their very eyes.