More joy in heaven over one sinner that repents ...

Another fascinating article on Conservative Home this weekend, this time from former Swedish MP and trade minister Maria Borelius, in which she does something very rare for a current or former politician and admits she was totally wrong about something important - in this case whether her country should join the Euro.

It is called  Why I was wrong on the Euro, am no longer a Europhile, and why Europe needs reform and you can read the whole thing here.

An extract from the start of the article reads as follows.

Ten years ago, Sweden held a referendum on joining the euro. I voted Yes – and I was not alone. A whole host of business leaders, including the Swedish CBI, the main political parties - both on left and right - and the major national newspapers, all were in favour of joining. The Swedish CBI put a record £45 million into the campaign to ditch the Swedish Krona, as the yes-side funding outspent the no-side by a factor of 10-1.

I still remember the shock when we realised we had lost ...  A clear majority of Swedes – 56 per cent versus 41 per cent - had defied the establishment and said No to the euro.


A week is a long time in politics, and ten years a lifetime. Today, over 80 per cent of Swedes oppose the country joining the eurozone. The issue is completely off the table, with the eurozone crisis in its third year. Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal have been saved by the bell, in some cases more than once. Or rather by the little old ladies in Heidelberg and Helsinki, on whose tacit approval the bailout of weaker eurozone countries and the survival of the euro rests.
 
So how could I – and so many others – have be so wrong? It’s not as if there were no warnings. Some came from dissenting voices within the establishment, but most from ordinary citizens.
 
I vividly remember a conversation I had with a car dealer in rural Northern Sweden. “You know what”, he told me, “I won’t vote Yes because I don’t believe Greece will manage the convergence criteria.” That very simple and profound analysis proved bang on, but it eluded some of the country’s leading economists.

Our motives were noble. To us, the euro was a way of extending the common market, which was essential for our small country with many larger export-oriented companies, such as SAAB and Volvo. Ten per cent of all Swedish exports went to Germany, which was also the single largest market for both IKEA and H&M. The motives were also emotional. “Yes” was a way to end a sense of shame or alienation that had pervaded Sweden after our decision to remain neutral during World War II, a way to promote peace. Maybe my Yes was what psychologists would call a projection. I made the euro into what I wanted it to be. So part of the “Yes” was a dream, a Utopia in Brussels - but the devil is in the details. And they did not work.

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