22nd July 2011

I was about thirteen when my school offered a school trip to France.

My parents could not afford both the cost of the trip and a present for my Birthday and so I was offered a choice France or a Bicycle, I chose the Bicycle on the grounds that a trip to France was a one off event but a Bicycle was forever. Which it was until I ran into the back of a parked car on Ashton New Road one rainy Saturday afternoon.

If I had gone to France I would have had to juggle Francs and the exchange rate in order to buy presents and sweets and drinks.

That all came later.

I finally acquired a passport and set off for a summer job in Germany in 1967 where I had to juggle Marks in order to buy presents and bratwurst and beer.

Later again came France and the Franc followed by America and the Dollar and later again Belgium and the Belgian Franc.

Each visit abroad, to Europe or the USA involved a calculator to check the prices against the price at home.

I was at a conference in Birmingham when I met a delegate from Southern Ireland who showed my his Euros and very proud he was that his country had moved away from the Punt and now had a currency that was both grown up but which was also very sophisticated.

When next I was in Europe and exchanged my pounds for euros I suspected that prices were no  longer as competitive somehow the euro had both encouraged and masked a degree of inflation and my Belgian beer and chocolate seemed and probably was more expensive, dividing by three and multiplying by two only gets you so far nevertheless generally I welcomed the euro on the grounds that it made travel in Europe far easier and the idea of a common currency made much more sense in a common market so it was both a practical and a principled innovation.

So I don't agree with the euro sceptics and although I have never been a frequent flyer my previous job and my current involvement with the Diocese of Europe mean that I draw euros from cash machines more routinely than I have ever done.

Despite the current problems that the euro zone countries are experiencing and the fact that Britain is in some ways insulated from the possibility of contagion from the euros problems nevertheless I remain a convert to the possibilities that Europe and the euro offers.

A small Island on the edge of a large landmass gives us both opportunities and challenges, independence is all very well but if we are to play our part in the future of the European project it seems to me that the is an inevitable, albeit risky, step we will one day have to take.

Meanwhile my grandson is happily spending all his grandparents left over euros on his first school trip to France.