A chance to get rid of them forever?

The Irish are giving a lead in the fight against Brussels. With imagination, the UK could now solve the entire eurocrisis

The time has come – finally – for somebody with a sensible agenda to intervene in the insane race now taking place across the Channel between the markets and Berlin. Not just because, if they don’t, scorched earth will be all that’s left; but also because both sides are scared – and so the time is right.

The lunacy we are witnessing can be summed up succinctly. Berlin thinks that, unless the markets are shown somebody in control and applying discipline, things will go pear-shaped. (Sadly, Merkel at least also seems to see the whole thing as some kind of Morality Play).

The markets don’t care what Berlin thinks, and they don’t care about discipline: too much discipline is bad for business. All they want is a credible EU guarantor of last resort. They don’t care if it’s Berlin, the ECB, the IMF, Wen Jaibao or the Tooth Fairy…they just want one. Or else.

Berlin is in a hurry because without haste, it thinks, the euro will collapse….and the costs will be awful. The markets are in a hurry because of an equally commercial imperative: if they don’t get a guarantor soon, the banks will start falling over.

This contest is the equivalent of two armies using incompetent battle strategies on behalf of two opposing causes that are equally unjust. The only two certainties are that everyone will lose, and the collateral damage will be terrible. As a neutral – still borrowing cheaply and not in the eurozone – Britain has by far the most to lose. This is because – outside ClubMed – we have the weakest, most irrationally biased economic structure in the developed West; and because our banking institutions remain the owners of a great deal of undeclared toxic debt. The resultant anarchy of scorched earth would leave us in the most awful pickle.

Along with 42% of the UK population, I have said many times that I want to leave the EU as it currently configured with all speed, and refocus our marketing efforts towards Asia…where the potential is far greater (and the bureaucracy less stifling) than in Europe. But equally, the Geopolitics can’t be ignored: as we stand in November 2011, the United Kingdom is an irrelevance to the EU. The last thing Britain needs is the rise, fall and rise again of a dangerously unstable SuperState on its doorstep.

The potential bridge-building point of this mutual distrust is the whole issue of sovereignty. Our diplomatic goal should therefore be to persuade the EU to abandon its Federalist ambitions – outlaw them in fact – but create a disciplined single currency for which ALL EU members are separately and severally responsible.

It is a simple trade: everyone keeps their sovereignty, but everyone joins in with the single currency….which is guaranteed by everyone, so the markets are happy. And the mechanism for the time being would, of course, be a eurobond.

I can almost hear people rampaging around the sitting rooms of Britain at the thought of this idea; but if you think about it, everyone wins. The UK in particular regains its rightful position in Europe: properly involved without being ruled, and keeping the peace between France and Germany. We enter the currency at what would be (probably) our last strong Sterling level before Armageddon hits London. The Party-splitting Tory power-transfer thing becomes a non-issue. The power of Brussels is decimated. And the City v Paris v Berlin fight becomes largely irrelevant. (In fact, it would reduce our dependence on the Square Mile, which to me is a step forward – albeit painful).

There are but three problems with this idea. It would have to be wrapped up by the end of next week. Germany would refuse to remove the blinkers. And Camerlot lacks the bold imagination to try pulling it off. I am fairly sure that the markets would leap at it because, being globalist, they don’t give much of a toss about Geopolitics: money, not flags, is their addiction. For them, a soundly-constructed eurobond is the guarantee they seek.

Even if the idea never even gets to the runway, we should still float it. Then at least we have shown a willingness to get involved and be constructive. (10% of me, by the way, thinks that once one airs this idea with the markets, they will be unwilling to drop it – as they are re the eurobond concept).

This morning, the Irish Government has quite rightly said, more or less, “Right – we’ve done our bit, we’ve taken the pain, and we haven’t given up. Now we think the rich countries we’ve saved should fork out.” Excellent: we should get behind the Irish, because they alone are showing some intelligent bottle – and they alone have made a genuine effort. If I were Nigel Farage, I’d be on the first flight out to Dublin this afternoon with a wind-up mechanism.

But I suspect Camerlot will do with this opportunity what it did with all the other ones….fumble it. Let’s see what happens: but if Dave can’t even see the strong card being handed to him by Dublin, then he quite clearly isn’t up to the job.