THE recent decision of the Bank of England to raise interest rates illustrates the potential problems for Britain of a European single currency.
Britain now has a twin-track economy, boom conditions in London and the South East with recession in the manufacturing areas of the North West, most other English regions, Scotland and Wales, a fact that is best illustrated by the massive regional disparities in house price movements.
A rise in interest rates intended to curtail 'over-heating' in the South East will add further problems to manufacturing areas, by making British-made goods more expensive to sell abroad.
If this can now happen within one country, how can a single interest rate be applied across the whole of the European Union, whose national economies are in competition with one another anyway?
ROGER BANNISTER, UNISON National Executive Council, (Personal Capacity).
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