Letter: The Tories' choices

Earl Russell House
Tuesday 15 June 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: One of the essential skills of politics is the ability to distinguish between choices events leave us free to make and choices events do not leave us free to make.

Control of economic policy by the sovereign nation state, for which William Hague asked us to vote this week, comes into the second category. However many times we vote for it, it cannot happen. This is because of the immense increase in money moving about the world finding the most profitable place to invest, and the technical impossibility of controlling electronic methods of transfer.

This is the lesson the Conservatives should have learned on Black Wednesday, when the money crossing exchanges on one day was the equivalent of a whole year's GDP.

We have two choices: either we can belong to a much larger political unit in which there will be an element of political control over the market, or our economy will be run by the global market with no element of political control.

These are the options. Which does William Hague prefer?

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in