There were reports this week that people from the British financial services industry had set up a new body called City in Europe to promote euro membership for Britain. Described as "senior individuals", they were promoting "the benefits of joining a successful single currency for financial services and the economy as a whole".
People have thought British industry en masse was in favour of joining the euro. Nothing could be further from the truth. I for one, and I believe many others, are strongly opposed to the pound being folded into the euro with the loss of sovereignty that would follow.
First, I want to address europhiliac economic and financial arguments. They said Britain would lose if we failed to sign up. In reality, we have been doing very well. They said inward investment would dry up. It has not. They said a City of London outside the euro would lose out to Frankfurt and Paris. It has not - business flows have been coming our way.
London is the main location of eurobond issues and the main market for euro-currency trading; our corporate financiers have scooped the pool in crossborder takeovers.
The europhiliacs said overseas institutions would desert us. They were wrong. In three years, their numbers have risen by 50 per cent.
London has big advantages that will not be eroded by staying outside the euro. It has English, the language of global finance; it is one of Europe's most attractive capital cities in which to live; it has an unsurpassed pool of financial expertise; and it has a favourable tax regime for foreigners.
Outside the euro, London will continue to thrive and Britain will provide an example of successful diversity, something that will be good for owners of European shares. That is why my fund managers are aggressive investors in Europe's dynamic businesses.
Opposing the euro does not involve being bearish about Europe - if anything, it is the opposite. We believe the European Union is an excellent place for investment.
Euro enthusiasts say transaction costs will fall and tourists will find life easier. But should we sacrifice our freedoms for such marginal, almost trivial gains? The exchange rate mechanism was a dress rehearsal and look at the damage it did. Germany needed high interest rates after unification and we needed low rates to cope with recession. Germany's interests prevailed, with vast tranches of our economy sacrificed to German realpolitik.
Already, we can observe within the euro zone the dangers of a one-size-fits-all monetary policy. Germany, afflicted by stagflation, dictates European Central Bank (ECB) policy. Yet the last thing the Republic needs as it grapples with rising inflation is the stimulus from a weak euro and low ECB interest rates.
The dollar works because the US is more homogeneous than Europe. Its flexible, mobile labour force is willing to move if there is a downturn in one part of the country. For those left behind, fiscal transfers shift money from richer to poorer regions.
Europe's tribes, with their cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, have none of this.
Euro enthusiasts want us to leap on board the euro train. If not, they say, Britain will be left behind on decisions that will reshape a continent. But there is no point boarding a train if you think it could be derailed, as the exchange rate mechanism was, or if you fear it is heading for the wrong destination, a terminus called Federalism. Tory euro enthusiasts claim membership involves no loss of sovereignty. They are wrong. The pound is a dam: once breached, our freedoms will drain away.
Take tax. If we join the euro, the Brussels centralists will move on to tax harmonisation, making us pay for the timebomb ticking beneath Europe's under-funded pension systems. Britain has long been a bastion of freedom against people who wanted to unify Europe. To throw this away for unproven federalist gains would be a tragedy.
John Duffield is chairman of New Star Asset Management
