Peter Brown, Cleckheaton.

Having failed to prove that the modern Eurozone economy is underperforming our own, TW Jefferson has retreated into ancient history to find a new bogeyman to frighten us away from better EU relations (The Yorkshire Post, May 14). His fears are unfounded.

Mr Jefferson equates the euro to Churchill’s 1925 Gold Standard and the 1992 ERM, claiming it commits us to a "fixed exchange rate." This is economic nonsense. Those were fragile, artificial pegs that invited speculative attacks.

The euro, conversely, is a freely floating global powerhouse - the world’s second most traded currency. It doesn't fix our exchange rate to the world; it provides absolute currency stability and frictionless trade within our largest export market.

placeholder image — A man walks past a Euro logo at the visitors centre of the European Central Bank (ECB), at the central bank's headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on April 30, 2026 ahead a press conference on the Eurozone's monetary policy. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP via Getty Images)

It is why 21 of the 27 EU nations have willingly chosen to adopt it.

Furthermore, no nation is forced into the currency against its will.

To join, a government must voluntarily enter a multi-year transition mechanism.

Sweden joined the EU in 1995 but simply chooses not to take those steps, retaining its own currency over thirty years later.

Even when a nation possesses the strong public and political will to join - such as Croatia - reshaping its economy to qualify still took a full decade.

For Britain, therefore, the euro is a distant hypothetical - something not needing serious consideration for decades, if ever.

The urgent reality is that Brexit continues to damage our economic growth today.

Non-EU members Norway, Switzerland and Turkey already have single market or customs union arrangements - and all retain their own currencies. We can repair our trade relations right now without touching the currency question.

Where the single currency is actually used, incidentally, it is remarkably popular: A massive 82 per cent of eurozone citizens support it (Standard Eurobarometer 105, Spring 2026).

There is no reason to let Mr Jefferson's century-old historical ghosts prevent us from exploring immediate economic improvements. The bogeyman isn’t scary, when you know he doesn’t exist.