The euro question Cameron won’t answer

I am baffled again as to what the Prime Minister’s position on the euro actually is. He said several times, in answer to questions on his statement on the G8 in the Commons this afternoon, that the euro needs political union in order to work, which is why he was always against Britain’s adopting it.

His clearest statement came in answer to Peter Bone, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers supporter and Conservative member for Wellingborough.

Mr Bone: The euro is as dead as Monty Python’s parrot: it is no more, it has ceased to be, it has expired. So why do the euro elite continue to claim that it is alive and well? Is it not essential that Europe implements an orderly break-up of the eurozone before the markets force an economic tsunami?

The Prime Minister: Like my hon. Friend, I have always been a genuine euro-sceptic—sceptical about the euro—which is why I did not want to join it. We have to recognise, however, what is in this country’s interest, which is for the eurozone to sort out its issues and difficulties. I believe that will involve greater fiscal transfers and it must involve eurobonds over time. As I have said, it involves a more active monetary policy in Europe. We should encourage our European partners to go down this road to make sure that their system works properly. There are real dangers from disorganised exits from the euro. It is not just that countries would devalue, which would have an impact on us, as we have to think about the impact on financial institutions and banks around Europe, including on British banks. It is very important that the eurozone takes the necessary steps to put in place the contingency plans to keep it safe.

That answer was interesting because it did the old Tony Blair trick of suggesting that there are only two options: a good one (political union for the eurozone) and a bad one (“disorganised exits from the euro”).

Yet there is a third, in Bone’s opinion better, option, which is what Bone actually asked about, of “an orderly break-up of the eurozone”.

Why will David Cameron not answer that question?

Update: At least part of the answer to that question is here.

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• Guest

  Doesn’t this belong in “Questions to which the answer is NO”? 

  Cameron’s position on the Euro is crystal clear; he is a shill for his ideological masters in Brussels.

• AnthonyZacharzewski

  Because an orderly breakup of the eurozone is like a controlled explosion – still an explosion.

• http://twitter.com/francessmith frances smith

  this is cameron, his policy will always be that of the most generous party donor at the time.

  ask nathaniel rothschild what cameron thinks about this.

• Alec78

  I suspect he didn’t understand the question. He wasn’t taught to think, remember.