AHC: Tory PM Takes Britain into the Euro

I may be completely wrong, but my read on this is that despite Blair's enthusiasm for the Euro, he always faced deep skepticism from within the Labour Party (not just Gordon Brown).

Instead, with a POD of the 1980s, have a Tory Prime Minister take Britain into the Eurozone.
 
I don't think you could change things enough in that short a time - although there are some high profile Europhile Tories (Ken Clarke's the most prominent, off the top of my head), too much of the general population is resistant to closer ties with Europe. Although many people would have been happy to stay in an EEC type organisation, the closer political integration of the EU and claimed plans for future moves to a federal superstate were enough to trigger the BREXIT result.

The first Tory who seriously tried to get us into the single currency would be torn apart by the likes of the Times, Telegraph, Mail and most of the red tops (all bar the Mirror, I'd have thought) and would be very lucky to even keep their place as an MP (either through being voted out or being deselected by their local party before the next election).

With a large portion of their own party, the supporters of the likes of UKIP, the BNP and other right wing/nationalist parties, much of the popular media, a number of senior figures in the Labour party and a huge amount of the grassroots Tory support all against them they'd never dare to even mention they'd ever considered it.

I don't know how far back you'd have to go to change attitudes enough to make it happen but (in my own opinion, at least) it's further than the 1980s. Especially with Thatcher's fervent opposition to a single currency.

 
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