Europe: In or Out? (Or something in between!)   

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This all leads up to the Friday Room discussion on Europe.

The feature that struck me is that there is that Greece and Italy stick out on their own from main sequence, with with higher average incomes than is indicated for their level of corruption/inequality. The Euro bailout is in effect supporting these higher incomes; or, putting it bluntly, the rich in these countries are maintaining their lifestyle at our expense. The UK should not support this.

Until this situation is resolved the UK should not even think about joining the euro.

Clearly strong pressure must be put on these countries to reduce both corruption and inequality. Perhaps even threatening to expel these countries from the Euro unless they mend their ways.

The new and potential countries need to reduce corruption in order to become fully restored Europeans. I suggest that the eu can help this process and that it is a worthwhile aim that the UK should support

Turkey needs to reduce corruption and inequality before it should be considered for membership.