Bruce wrote:

It wasn't Gordon Brown who negotiated the opt-out in the Maastricht Treaty
that meant the UK could decide later whether or not to join the single
currency.

But it was John Major who took us into the ERM, and went to
ridiculously excessive lengths on Black Wednesday in a last ditch
attempt to keep us in it.

I never denied that he was the Chancellor who took us in, although support
for the move and at that particular level was widespread in political and
economic circles at the time largely as a means to control inflation. It was
not automatic that it would lead to membership of the single currency when
it happened and indeed when the opt-out on that was negotiated before the
ERM exit. The implication to the contrary that support for the ERM
automatically led to support for the single currency is the rewriting of
history, no matter how one tries to state it as fact and declare out.

As for the moves to stay in, this is the nightmare when a government and
central bank is committed to a currency measure even though other economic
factors are putting it under great strain. To simply bail out and devalue at
the first sign of trouble would have been hugely damaging to investment and
market confidence - exactly at what precise point did the lengths become
"ridiculously excessive"? Had the market madness subsided earlier during
that day it's probable that the measures would have soon been reigned in.
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