Twenty years ago, I was an anti-European. Today, I am a pro-European. The strange thing is that my views have not changed. I have always thought that Britain should stay out of the euro but inside the EU. During the John Major and Tony Blair years, when the euro was the dominant issue, that position made me a eurosceptic. But now the argument has become about whether Britain should leave the EU altogether. The front-line in Britain’s civil war over Europe has moved and, because I have stayed in the same place, I find myself on a different side of the battle-lines.
When the single currency was first mooted, I opposed it because I thought it was a dangerous economic experiment designed to promote an undesirable political union. But I still thought it made sense for Britain to remain inside the EU to reap the benefits of the European single market and the diplomatic and cultural links that come with membership.
The people who want Britain to leave the EU argue that my position – inside the EU, but outside the euro – no longer makes sense. They make two main arguments. First, the euro crisis is now creating an inevitable drive towards political union that will eventually suck in all EU members, so Britain’s position is untenable. The second argument is that the British economy can do just as well, or better, outside the EU.