For holidaymakers who have to exchange their hard-earned pounds, heading into the eurozone to buy stuff is a painful experience. Once the foreign currency bureau has taken its cut the two are not far off parity.

The days off cheap sangria in Spain or cut-price Guinness in Ireland have, for now, been consigned to old holiday photograph albums.

For those who can remember a strong pound, it seems almost humiliating to be paying more for a beer or a cola on a Mediterranean beach than back at home.

A weak pound might be bad news for tourists, but it is to be welcomed by manufacturers and other businesses that rely on exports.

It makes British-made products more attractive price-wise to European customers, while foreign-made imports become more expensive here. That is good news for our balance of trade, particularly as the eurozone is our main export market.

Some Brits may decide to stay at home rather than face the cost of heading to eurozone sunshine, which is good news for hotels, B&Bs and cottage owners here. Not only that, but this side of the Channel has become an attractive place to holiday for cash-rich Europeans.

The pound has held up reasonably well against the dollar, so the States remains a reasonably attractive place to go as does Turkey, and other countries where the local currency has fared even worse than the pound.

If we were in the euro it might knock a few quid off the price of a holiday, but it would make life so much more difficult for our exporters.

Giving up control of our money would have been a disaster.