Re: Too Late.
> Without an agreed opt-out like the UK and Denmark, euro membership is an obligatory part of EU membership.
I agree except a slight wrinkle re the UK's current exception: it wasn't an agreed opt-out, it was a forced fail-out pre-Euro.
IIRC that obligatoriness only came into effect when the actual Euro did, and the UK lost its pre-Euro/ERM eligibility as a result of Soros realising the sheer wildness of the real-life disconnect and taking an opposite position with sufficiently deep pockets to ride out the anti moves of the UK to stay in.
The UK Treasurer took a lot of stick at the time for literally handing billions to Soros by the failed defence. A defence that was guaranteed to fail. He sucked it up at the time but went on the record a few years ago spitting the dummy, pointing out that he had NO discretion in the matter, that the money he poured into the guaranteed-to-fail "defence" was actually mandatory, required by EU law. His whole contribution was to sign the papers until they exceeded the ERM's requirements. And if he personally refused, all that would happen is that the signing requirement would proceed down a chain of failovers until finally every member of the government refused. At which point (assuming no one actually signed), mahoosive penalties applied.
IIRC nearly half the money went in the day before the crash-out.
Mandated by EU law.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
