As David Cameron walked away from another half-baked Euro-fudge, the press showed their ignorance of all things European by declaring the end of Britain's membership of Europe, whilst the reality was ignored and Britain continued to trudge along, shackled to full membership of the Brussels bureaucracy.
It was, however, perhaps a symbolic move, and as the larger Eurozone falls apart and a core-group emerges, the opportunities for a government to take the initiative will remain. One such initiative would be to look beyond the continental obsession of the last fifty years, to the wider world from where Britain's success has always come.
Take for example the Commonwealth. Not for these states staggering economies and red-tape. Rather, the Commonwealth nations boast large growth and can have the fruit that goes with it – the enriching of their peoples and the improvement of their lives. Yes corruption is rife in many, yes there are political problems and internal conflicts, but the opportunities are far greater than in Europe, and engaging with difficulties, rather than walking away, is the way of solving them.
The Euro Area has, from 1995 to 2011, recorded average growth of 1.4%, and since 2000, a straight-line analysis of growth would show a declining line from the heights of around 4% in 2000 to less than 2% today.
Not so for the Commonwealth. In Asia, from 2000 to 2011, India has averaged growth of 7.45%, with a booming services sector. Sri Lanka, from 2003-2011, recorded 6.26% year-on-year average growth. Pakistan, riven with internal conflicts, poverty, and unsecured borders with India and Afghanistan, still for the last two years managed growth averaging well over 2%. Even Bangladesh, overpopulated, vulnerable to nature’s fury, with poor infrastructure and political instability, and an economy dependent on agriculture and garment manufacturing, recorded growth exceeding 5% in the last two years.
Further afield, Malaysia has transformed itself from a poor, agricultural state to a provider of all, from electronics to services, agriculture to manufacturing. Its rocky road to success has produced an average growth rate from 2000 to this year of 1.17% a year. Singapore, since 2007, has averaged 5.51% annual growth, yet this pales in comparison to Papua New Guinea, which, despite being mainly agricultural and covered in difficult, mountainous terrain, recorded 8% GDP growth in 2010.
In South America, Guyana has managed growth of over 5% average over the last five years, whilst even little Belize, dependent on agriculture and tourism, has managed around 2% average growth over the same period.
In Africa, where China is heavily investing, leaving Europe as ever naval-gazing to the north, South Africa, despite major political difficulties still reverberating from apartheid, has averaged about 3% a year growth since 2000. Its giant neighbour, Namibia, with massive wealth inequality, has posted average growth of over 4% a year since 2000. Botswana, the 'African Tiger' (should that be Lion?), recorded over 5% GDP per capita growth in 2010. Rwanda, the Commonwealth member with no historical connections to the British Empire, from 2000-2010, averaged 8.48% growth.
Zambia, another fast-growing state in Africa, since 2000 averaged over 5% a year GDP growth, in 2010 posting 7.61%. Tanzania, poor and dependent on agriculture, averaged since 2001 growth of 1.78%. Kenya has recorded about 4% growth over the last 5 years and Uganda, despite Idi Amin's legacy, and the ongoing war with the Lord's Resistance Army in the north, has averaged over 6% GDP growth a year for the last 10 years.
Further north in Africa, there is desperately poor Cameroon, rivalling the EU with an average 3% growth for the last ten years. Sierra Leone, despite being dependent on aid, and after years of civil war, still manages to average over the last 5 years 5% annual growth. The tiny state of Gambia, since 2000 has recorded growth of over 5% average, and regional giant Nigeria, in the last five years, has averaged 6.71% a year.
These states are rich in minerals and raw materials, all the primary foundations for manufacturing, a core element for any economic recovery. The other major Commonwealth states rich in raw materials are Canada and Australia (with average GDP growth rates well over 2% for the last decade). New Zealand has lagged behind in the last ten years, with about 0.5% growth, and the only large Commonwealth states suffering GDP contraction at the end of 2011 were Ghana and Mozambique, which averaged, respectively, 1.58% and 2% growth a year, until this year, when their economies went into a sharp recession.
There are more Commonwealth states; here are only some of the larger ones. Yet it is clear, that India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda have all vastly outperformed the EU and look like continuing to outperform the EU for the next decade.
As the Euro totters on the verge of total collapse, it is right for Cameron to want to help “put out our neighbours fire” (despite them ignoring our warnings that this was going to happen), but as the tax-deal and fiscal union that Cameron said no to was not “in the national interest”, so being tied to the EU’s regulatory environment and hiding behind tariff walls and other barriers to free trade are not in Britain’s national interest, nor the interest of those countries that would desperately like to gain access to Britain’s markets and receive investment from Britain’s pools of expertise.
