Let's have an election

Written by Andrew Duff MEP and published in Hertfordshire (Herts) Mercury on Mon 21st Aug 2000

The new political season will shortly begin. Those who may groan at the prospect should reflect on the true ghastliness of the news in the 'silly season' (defined, flatteringly, as when politicians go on holiday) - mob rule in Portsmouth, A-level results, and Euan Blair. The summer has also brought me a big crop of letters from anti-European readers of the Herts Mercury because I suggested in recent columns (1) that refugees were probably OK and (2) that judges might be better than politicians at upholding the rights of the EU citizen.

What, then, can we hope from the party conferences as we manoeuvre into position for the general election? Everyone expects polling day to be next May. I'm not so sure. For one thing, there's the Treaty of Nice to come in December, which will take the political integration of Europe one step forward from the last effort at Amsterdam in 1997. However small the advance in real terms, the Tories will declare Nice to be a foreign plot to end life in Britain as we know it. This will frighten Mr Blair, especially as the Bill to ratify the Treaty will not be ready to enter the House of Commons until March.

Then there's the euro, about which we still wait for a rational debate. By rational I mean reasoned, argued, thoughtful rather than exaggerated, sentimental or paranoiac. Here we must look to business to provide the desirable element of rationality. Businessfolk are less inclined than politicians to take decisions lightly. Business investments are for the long term.

That's why we should listen to the bosses of Toyota who have added their company to the long list of those which have asked their British suppliers to do business in euros. That's why we should notice Matsushita's decision to shift its TV production from the UK to the Czech Republic. Commenting on Matsushita, The Sun crowed: 'Last time we looked, the Czech Republic was not a member of the single European currency'. Look again, however, and we find that the Czech government is determined that its currency should shadow the euro now, and that it should join up as a full member as soon as possible.

The fact is that foreign direct investment to Britain will dry up if the expectation that sterling will remain outside the euro is allowed to grow. That is what business says.

Other factors matter, of course, apart from the currency in making Britain an attractive venue for investment, such as skills, language, labour flexibility and low taxation. But Britain's relative advantage in these areas is declining. Taxes are coming down in mainland Europe, and employment practices are modernising at last. Education and skills levels in Britain are hardly the best.

Inward investors are getting impatient at the indecisiveness of this government about the future of sterling. Investment is indeed falling off. So the time to decide is overdue. If there has to be an election before a referendum on the euro, so be it. But let's have that election as soon as possible, before Nice, this October. We Lib Dems are raring to go.