Happy birthday, part one

Imagine that you are a ten-year-old child. (If you really are a ten-year-old child, welcome to this blog — I'm very happy to have you here.)

Anyway, imagine it's your 10th birthday and you're having a party. You invite your usual friends, and they all come, as they do every year. You invite the new kid in your street, and he's delighted to come, too. There are other kids who live nearby who would love to come, but you don't know them well enough to invite them this year. Perhaps another time.

On the other hand, there's one little girl who never comes to your party even though you always invite her. She's very friendly to you for the rest of the year — and takes part in most of your games — but she never comes to the party. She says she might come at some point in the future, but you don't really believe her.

In fact, you could be forgiven for not inviting her any more. But you rather like her, even though she can be stubborn and she insists on playing games according to her own rules. Otherwise, she opts out of playing.

This scenario is like that of the eurozone. The euro celebrated its 10th birthday on 1 January this year. (The notes and coins didn't come until 2001.) And Slovakia, the new kid on the block, became the 16th country to adopt the common European currency, now used by 329 million people.

Britain meanwhile — like Denmark and Sweden, who are also EU members — continues to refuse to come to the party. Indeed, despite a fall in the value to the pound to almost parity with the euro, 71 per cent of Britons would still vote against giving up their currency, according to a BBC poll.

Most press coverage of the euro's first ten years have been very positive, including comment in the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, which even floated the idea of a common EU-US currency.

British economists, meanwhile, still disagree about euro membership. Although the falling pound makes foreign holidays more expensive and may hurt national pride, it will give a significant boost to Britain's export industry at a time of worldwide recession.

So, while you're thinking about whether to invite that little girl to your party next year, remember that, although she wants to be friends with you, she seems quite happy to give the party a miss.

On Monday, I'll look at another birthday party — this time a 50th.