Julian Cole

Now here's a thing, a column about the euro. There's no need to be like that. Burying your head in the sand won't do. Besides, it's unflattering as it makes your bottom stick in the air so.

Now here's another thing. I'm not quite sure what I think about the euro, so we'll have to make it up as we go along.

What cannot be denied is that this week 11 other countries in Europe put their faith in the creation of a single currency. That's Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. This block is to be known as Euroland, which sounds like a fun park but almost certainly is no such thing.

Britain has stayed out, with Sweden and Denmark. Greece wanted to be in but was politely told to take its drachmas elsewhere.

Though the euro exists, there are as yet no notes or coins, so to that extent it remains funny money, dealt in mainly by the wheelers and dealers of the money market. Old national notes and coins will continue in circulation for three more years, so if, say, you holiday in France this year you will still need to take francs. French supermarkets, as I saw in Brittany last summer, are already pricing goods in both francs and the euro.

According to an opinion poll taken as the single currency was launched over the weekend, opposition to the euro has surged among British voters. Such an apparent hardening of opinion illustrates the difficulties faced by Tony Blair as he ponders when to hold the promised euro referendum. In all likelihood, such a vote would find against the euro - and thus condemn Britain to being outside monetary union for decades to come.

Would such an exclusion be good or bad for Britain? To seek an answer you would be wiser talking to someone who keeps their own bank account in better order. But for what it's worth, I am generally in favour of the euro.

This is a head and heart issue. My head says the euro makes good economic sense while my heart worries about the disappearance of pounds and pennies. Yet the heart is being too sentimental here, for the true British currency evaporated in the Seventies with decimalisation.

One of the greatest reasons for supporting the euro is the sort of company you would have to keep in the opposite camp. The euro-sceptics are such an unattractive bunch, forever boring on about sovereignty and never happier than when belittling foreigners. They are small minded and obsessive and peer at the world through the wrong end of a novelty telescope done out in a Union Jack design.

Another reason for supporting the euro is that Lord Owen has come out against it. In fact a canny polster would have sought opinion after Lord Owen briefly elbowed his way back into the headlines. I suspect that support for the euro might well have gone up after his announcement.

It is true that the euro is not only opposed by the Little Englanders, but as they make the most noise theirs is often the only dissenting voice to be heard.

We are right to be nervous about the euro, but wrong to reject the single currency out of hand. We are right to be cautious, but wrong to insist that we shall always stay in never-neverland while all about us turns to Euroland.

That, at least, is the accommodation my head and heart have come to.

Tremendous news! Sleeping in the day is good for you.

An American professor taking part in a discussion on Radio Four's You And Yours programme recommends the 'power nap'. Instead of a tea or coffee break, the office worker should try a 20-minute sleep, ideally eight hours after first rising. Apparently a nap refreshes the parts coffee doesn't reach. This sound like a great idea, so if you don't mind I'm ... zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

07/01/99

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.