Is it time Britain joined the Euro?

Reports that Nestl may be considering switching production from York to mainland Europe show once again that it is time to stop whining about saving the pound and start doing something serious about saving jobs.

The suggestion that yet more jobs in the region could be threatened by the imbalance between exchange rates in the UK and the Euro currency shows the very real price we shall pay if the Euro debate drags on and on.

I shall be stressing to Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers that this is a here-and-now issue for so many of our industries in the region. Reports over the possible threats to our chocolate industry, which is one of the region's major employers, demonstrate that every sector of manufacturing is at risk - and that the Government must give a lead in arguing the case that a level playing field for our industries is far more important than posturing over the pound.

The Euro is about giving industry, particularly manufacturing industry, the kind of stability it needs to do long term planning and to sign up for long-term contracts. If you cannot predict what level the currency is going to be at in six months it means you cannot sign a long-term contract and you lose business.

The British pound is going to end up like a cork, bobbing up and down on top of the waves. If the currency is not stable, that means even where there are jobs, they are not stable jobs. Huge multi-nationals with more than one manufacturing base are switching that base around depending on what the currency is doing.

The fact is there is more stability inside than outside the Euro. It is a big currency. The GDP of the Euro area is greater than that of the US. The population is bigger than the US. I believe the European external trade is greater than that of the US. Something with a bit more mass will be more stable.

There are other advantages to the Euro. Greater stability gives opportunities to export more outside Europe. Interest rates will also come down. Our interest rates have historically been higher than the rest of Europe. Inevitably they would come down. That would be beneficial to manufacturers interested in borrowing to invest in productivity.

I have talked in the last few weeks to steel workers, members of the engineering employers' federation in Yorkshire, and the chocolate industry. We have just solved one of the problems facing the chocolate industry. We have now got a single market in Europe in chocolate. We need a single currency to go with it.

Mr Bowe was planning to raise concerns about the high value of the pound and the resulting threat to jobs in York when he met Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers in Brussels today.

No... says Nick Herbert, chief executive of Business for Sterling

THE organisations I represent consist mainly of business people who volunteer their support. They are concerned about the impact monetary union would have on their businesses.

Our message is yes to the European market, yes to trade with Europe, but no to the Euro. We say that on pragmatic business and economic grounds; we don't have a political axe to grind.

Britain has competitive advantages which mean we are actually doing very well at the moment. We put that at risk by linking our economy with Europe when we are so often out of line with Europe. The majority of our trade is dollar trade. Our economy is much more closely linked with the American economy.

We fear the Euro will mean higher taxes and fewer jobs - unemployment in Europe is double that of Britain.

The inability to control our own interest rates could spell a return to those terrible days in the Exchange Rate Mechanism when we lost control of our economy. Savage interest rates put 1 million homes into negative equity and 100,000 businesses went bankrupt. It was a disaster.

Ireland, which is in the Euro, has the highest inflation in the European Union. It's rising and there's nothing they can do about it. Normally they would put up interest rates but they can't because it's a European interest rate.

People say it would be wonderful inside the single currency zone, we wouldn't have to change our money. But these things are bought at a price. We should weigh up the costs which are substantially greater for businesses that trade within the euro zone.

What we are also arguing is that the world is changing. The Euro project was conceived 50 years ago in a different era. Today we have the Internet, people can buy globally. To the whole new generation who buy CDs on the Internet, currencies are irrelevant.

At the moment the pro side are relying on the fear factor. But we are the fourth largest economy in the world. The notion that we can't have our own currency is ridiculous. We are a major global player. We are an extremely successful economy. We have to take this decision on a rational basis, not in a climate of fear.

And what we all know is that this isn't all about economics, it's about creating a political union.

Our message is getting through. It used to be often asserted that 'business wants the euro'. One of the reasons was that people thought that 'business' was just the multi nationals. There are 3 million businesses in this country. Small and medium-sized businesses are our future. Two thirds of the British business community doesn't want to go in.

I am convinced that the majority of the public don't want go in either. You don't take a risky decision unless you're absolutely sure, and we are not absolutely sure.