A leading Hove businessman and apparent avid reader of my column contacted me last weekend to get my views on what, for him, is his biggest financial issue.

It is as it is for many others in business - that of European Monetary Union.

He, like most successful businessmen, believes that Monetary Union is inevitable, but his overriding concern is the emotive issue of losing the pound.

This is likely to be one of the biggest constitutional decisions that many of us will ever have to make - in the referendum on joining the single currency, if Labour win the next election.

The issue seems split between the economic reality that we trade predominantly with our European partners and, as such, it would make economic sense for all to use a uniform money system and these emotive constitution issues.

First, if we do vote "Yes", it would stop the excessive fees we all pay when we change our money to another European currency and back again to sterling and, second, it would stop the roller coaster way individual currencies change, which has been highlighted by strong sterling against the euro.

Although this makes holidays on the Continent cheaper, it has a devastating effect on our exporters, making their products uncompetitive in the European market.

One slightly ludicrous suggestion banded around is to come out of the European market and ally ourselves to the United States. Obviously, that idea could never be taken seriously as the US trades predominantly within the Americas.

You only have to travel to California to see what the UK means to the Californians - our British accents are often mistaken for Australian.

The emotive issue of losing the pound, and I am a very strong anglophile, seems to be very high on most people's minds. I thought, however, we lost the pound when it changed from being 20 shillings to 100 new pence. This brought our currency in line with the other major world financial systems.

From the evidence I have seen, I believe we should join our fellow Europeans in a single currency. It is economically the sensible action to take. I remember when the vote for joining the Common Market was taken.

I was, of course, much younger then and life seemed more black and white. Now, issues like this seem greyer and there are reasonable arguments on both sides.

I just hope when the time comes to make our decision on monetary union, both sides of the political spectrum give us informed, accurate information. Not just jingoistic sound bites that cloud the issue of the real agenda.