East. The North east will never recover unless it has its own currency, which it can then devalue against the GBP. If a country as small as Ireland needs its own currency, so so do all the regions of the UK and of other large countries. Comment number 42. Not sure about the "blame Gordon Brown argument" as I did not think he was in charge of allowing the first tranche of countries to join the Euro. I also thought he was not for joining the Euro when he was in office. My point was the Maastricht treaty of 1992 obliged EU States joining the Euro to meet money and budgetary requirements. Why were those States that did not meet these requirements allowed to join? I do not see that has anything to do with Gordon Brown or the Bankers. Surely it is EU officials and the heads of States at that time who should be held to account for allowing countries in that had not met the convergence criteria. Comment number 43. There is considerable angst over even discussions of German departure from the Euro. So long as the European Union was revelling in its bravado in challenging USA, this German departure was not on the cards. It is only when there is growing realisation that the rest of the world is not waiting for the re-emergence of Charlemagne's Empire, that the rest of the world prefers the english speaking world, that the EU will never be able to