He told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: ''There won't necessarily have to be a treaty in this country for fiscal union.

''It is conceivable there would be a treaty just among members of the eurozone.''

He added: ''But at some stage there will be another treaty because if there is fiscal union in Europe it changes our relationship to Europe.

''I think it gives an opportunity for two things. Firstly it gives us an opportunity to negotiate for the looser form of Europe that I would have liked to have seen in the 1990s.

''I think there are some areas that are worth looking.

''Fishing is one. I think there are some elements of employment law... things like the working time directive, which I think is a very foolish piece of legislation - we could look at repatriating part of it.''

A group was formed last month by new-intake Tories to put pressure on the leadership to weaken ties with Brussels.

Sir John also said it was time to get the Greek default ''out of the way'' but argued it should be done within the eurozone and with assistance to prop up banks that hold the country's bonds.

He said it was ''extremely unlikely'' that the eurozone would ''fracture with nations dropping off the edge''.

''In the short term the banks need to be recapitalised and Greece needs to default. The sooner that happens and Greece defaults the sooner you remove something from the overhang in the markets.

''If Greece defaulted and couldn't pay its debts, all the Greek bonds that are held in other banking systems across Europe would suddenly have no value.

''You could, as a knock on effect, create a banking crisis in Western Europe. That would be absolutely catastrophic.

''So Greece must not default until the banks are in a position to absorb any losses there may be without creating any banking crisis.''

He suggested the most likely option was turning the European structural facility into a bank and allowing it to buy up bonds or recapitalise the banks.

''Then, it would be thoroughly desirable, in my view, to get the Greek default out of the way. It is a terrible overhang in the market, let's get it done.''

Meanwhile, a senior member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee said there is "quite a lot of scope" for a further round of quantitative easing.

Martin Weale said that while central banks should not be seen as the solution to the "world's problems", a third round of QE was possible.

His comments came following the recent decision by the Bank to boost its QE programme - effectively printing more cash - from £200 billion to £275 billion and hold interest rates at 0.5%.

The move, dubbed QE2, is the first change to the programme since November 2009 and provided the clearest signal yet that the Bank thinks Britain is on the brink of a double-dip recession.

Speaking to Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News today, Dr Weale said that with interest rates so low, the Bank could still pump more cash into the system as it tries to stimulate economic growth.

He said: "There is quite a lot of scope for further quantitative easing. Before the purchases that we announced last week, the amount of Government debt in the system was actually higher than it had been before the earlier bout of quantitative easing.

"There is quite a lot more that could be done but at the same time I think one has to recognise that central banks can't be expected on their own to resolve all of the world's problems."

Dr Weale also denied the measure simply led to inflation without stimulating the economy, claiming the situation would be worse without the second round of QE. But he acknowledged there was "uncertainty" about the impact of QE.

"I have not heard anyone suggesting that quantitative easing actually inhibits the growth of the economy, that it fails to provide support," he added.

"Some people have suggested that it translates fairly directly into inflation without supporting economic growth, but I can't see any reason why that should be the case.

"I haven't heard of a convincing mechanism why that should be the case. So the further quantitative easing is to provide further support for the economy.

"Obviously the future is uncertain and we don't know how much support will be provided but I certainly think it is an appropriate response to a weakening economic (situation)."

when the first country starts printing its old currency in secret and word gets out watch out for the runs


its gonna be awesome

FrogFryer wrote:

when the first country starts printing its old currency in secret and word gets out watch out for the runs


its gonna be awesome

yeah plenty of work for the lads and lasses in our Royal mint at Llantrisant


they do coins and notes for countries worldwide