Europe is a friend to us in all sorts of ways — so let’s keep it that way

DO YOU remember the currency crisis at the end of 1992? Well, I’ll never forget it. I took out a mortgage in the month it started. Like most of us, it was more than I could afford and the first mortgage payment was about double the rent I had been paying in the month before that.

I consoled myself with the thought that the tax relief would help and, anyway, I was buying an asset now instead of pouring money down the drain in rent.

That was small consolation when, under the pressure of rapidly increasing interest rates, my second mortgage payment was £250 higher than the first and the third payment was a further £200 higher again.