The Euro is unsustainable

Michael Portillo: It’s said by a large number of people, including people who are very keen on the European Union, that the euro is unsustainable, and I agree with that. But people don’t follow through the logic of that. The logic means that its not going to last. And its not going to last, because you know, the Italians and the Greeks and the Spanish can’t bear these levels of unemployment, can’t continue to be so uncompetitive because their exchange rate is dominated by the power of the German economy. And now we have the Americans putting pressure on the Germans saying you’re basically using the euro “to cheat” in international markets. So it’s going to come under tremendous pressure. Everybody knows that some of the countries in the euro shouldn’t be there, and everyone knows that it needs to be reformed. But what we are waiting for is someone with the guts to bring this off. Someone who believes that they can you know adjust the house of cards without bringing it down. I think one of the key factors has been the creation of the euro, which has made it very difficult for Ireland, for Spain, for Italy, for Greece particularly. And has created unemployment in a number of those countries. And of course with free movement of people, they’re going from the places where they can’t find work, to the places where they can either find work, or live on benefits. And I think, its not working well. I think one of the ironies is you know we’re busy discussing Brexit but the free movement of people in the European Union as a whole I think is now under challenge. I’d like to see where that question will have got to in the two years while the British are negotiating Brexit because all ready French politicians are having to promise for example rebuilding French borders because of the popular pressure.