Bootle - Trouble with europe - why the eu isnt working, how it can be reformed, how

Praise for

The Trouble with Europe

I recommend our diplomats and ministers read this book: it will provide them with an intellectual backbone. This will be the essential vade mecum if and when a referendum campaign takes place. The part of Bootles book in which he analyses the pros and cons of British exit from the EU will be the most influential.

On the big calls [Bootle] has a spectacularly good record. He warned about the bubble in US real estate which led to the credit crunch. Earlier, he forecast the collapse of the dotcom boom. Most creditably of all, back in 1992 he identified that the pound would be forced out of the ERM and that this would be a good thing for the British economy. His latest book is all of a piece with that prescient judgment of more than 20 years ago.

Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times

Bootle is right on every count.

Larry Elliott, The Guardian

Bootle writes with energetic prose and makes some good points. His discussion of European monetary union is cogent. The enterprise was unnecessary and it was embarked on too early and with insufficient preparation. It was an integration too far and too soon. Bootle is an accomplished economist whose The Trouble with Markets provided a penetrating analysis of the origins of the financial crisis. In The Trouble with Europe, he asks what has gone wrong with the EU, suggests why reforms are unlikely to happen and maps out a fresh start for UKEU relations.

Financial Times

An outstanding, grown-up account of the failures of the European Union. Bootle is certainly no little Englander, but his argument is calm, conversational, rigorous and quite remarkably for an economist entirely free of bafflegab. Engaging and absorbing, here is an eye-opening book that will inspire you to think through the issues clearly without starting a saloon-bar brawl.

The Daily Telegraph

Roger Bootle perceptively analyses what is wrong with the European Union as presently constituted, both politically and economically; what reforms are needed to make it wise for the UK to remain a member; and how we can most sensibly conduct ourselves outside the EU, should those reforms not be undertaken. It is essential background reading for any future in/out referendum.

Rt. Hon. Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer

As I have come to expect from Roger Bootle, he gets to the heart of the matter with crystal-clear analysis and punchy comment. Its the best book yet on the European Unions dysfunctionality.

Jeff Randall, Sky News business presenter

Brilliant, albeit radical solutions. One of the most thoughtful accounts that I have yet read about the European question.

Independent on Sunday

Here it is a book for every faint-heart who thinks this country could never prosper outside the European Union. A timely and balanced analysis.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

This is a credible plan for life outside Europe and deserves to be widely read.

The Week Business Books of the Year

Roger Bootles well-informed and rigorously-argued book brutally exposes the problems besetting Europe and Britains position within and conceivably outside the European Union. It should be required reading for all those preparing to vote.

David Marsh, Co-chairman of OMFIF, and author of Europes Deadlock

A timely and balanced analysis of the contradictions inherent in what has become the European Union, driven not by ideology but by rational economic analysis. It provides a chronological context, pursues some historic comparisons and concludes with a variety of options both for the EU generally and the UK specifically. Bootle recognises that the political will of the elites is never sufficient to overcome economic reality and the voice of the people.

Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton

Roger Bootle manages to weave the economic, political and diplomatic aspects of the European Unions current problems into a compulsively readable analysis which should be of engrossing interest to europhiles and eurosceptics alike.

William Keegan, Senior Economics Editor, The Observer, and author of The Prudence of Mr. Gordon Brown

[Roger Bootle] has a distinguished (and, for an economist, unusual) record of being right on the main issues famously predicting in 1990 that the financial climate in Europe and North American would face the death of inflation.

Andrew Hilton, Director, Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation

This is an important book. Anyone who wishes to debate this issue seriously will have to read it. Bootle has done the world a service.

John Llewellyn, Llewellyn Consulting and former Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Why the EU Isnt Working

What Could Take Its Place

How the Referendum Could Change Europe

Third Edition

Roger Bootle

This third edition first published by
Nicholas Brealey Publishing in 2016
An imprint of John Murray Press

An Hachette UK company

Roger Bootle 2014, 2015, 2016
The right of Roger Bootle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publishers.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-85788-655-9
eISBN 978-1-85788-967-3

Printed in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc.

John Murray Press policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

www.nicholasbrealey.com

I nevitably, I owe many people debts of gratitude. The book was inspired by David Green of the think tank Civitas, which generously provided a research grant. For both Davids inspiration and encouragement and Civitas grant, I am extremely grateful. It was David who galvanized me into writing the book. Meanwhile, Civitas grant enabled me to employ research assistants Melanie DeBono, Sam Dickens and Konrad Malinowski, who greatly increased my productivity and allowed me to finish the book that much more quickly. I am also grateful to the think tank Open Europe for permission to use an adapted version of one of its charts as

I also owe a debt to The Daily Telegraph