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Euro governance { May 23 2001 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election2001/story/0,9029,495210,00.html"A country which loses the power to issue its own currency is a country which has given up the power to govern itself. Such a country is no longer free. And it is no longer democratic - for its people can no longer determine their own future in national elections."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election2001/story/0,9029,495210,00.html
Thatcher says never to single currency
Tory matriarch goes on stage and off message
Special report: Election 2001
Ewen MacAskill
Wednesday May 23, 2001
The Guardian
Lady Thatcher elbowed her way into the centre of the general election last night with a passionate denunciation of the single currency as the Conservatives finally played the European card.
At a rally in Plymouth, she warned that Tony Blair was expected by other European countries to lead Britain by the nose into the single currency. "And he's prepared to do it."
Going off script, she added: "I would never be prepared."
She received thunderous applause for this pledge, pointing to a possible rift with the Conservative leader, William Hague, who has only ruled it out for the lifetime of the next parliament.
Her unscripted addition upset Mr Hague's aides. One said: "She had promised beforehand not to say 'never' to a single currency in her speech."
But she did give her blessing to Mr Hague for the campaign, an endorsement she pointedly withheld from John Major.
Last night the reaction from pro-European Tories was fast and predictably furious. Ian Taylor, the former science minister defending his Esher and Walton seat, said: "William Hague must distance himself from Margaret Thatcher's remarks without qualification. We have agreed to stick to the line which is to rule out euro membership not forever, but for one parliament."
Labour joined in the assault with John Prescott saying: "This is an absolute bombshell. It is an open invitation to Tory rebel backbenchers to defy Mr Hague's leadership. It will rip the Tory party in two."
The Conservatives believe that scepticism about the European single currency is their strongest issue and they intend to maintain Europe as a high-profile issue .
Lady Thatcher, 75, was given a three-minute standing ovation from the Conservative audience of about 500.
She told the rally: "The greatest issue in this election, indeed the greatest issue be fore our country, is whether Britain is to remain a free, independent nation state or whether we are to be dissolved in a federal Europe. There are no half-measures, no third ways and no second chances."
She said it was not just a matter of economics: "A country which loses the power to issue its own currency is a country which has given up the power to govern itself. Such a country is no longer free. And it is no longer democratic - for its people can no longer determine their own future in national elections."
She added: "To surrender the pound, to surrender our power of self-government, would betray all [that] the past generations down the ages lived and died to defend." Earlier, as she greeted the audience at Plymouth Pavilion she said: "I was told beforehand my arrival was unscheduled, but on the way here I passed a local cinema and it turns out you were expecting me after all. The billboard read The Mummy Returns."
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