Why does Britain use Pounds instead of Euros?

Answer 1

The use of the Euro as a national currency is optional, not mandatory for an EU member country. Only 16 of the 27 EU member countries use the Euro and a further 4 non-member countries use the Euro.

Britain has stuck with its traditional currency of the Pound Stirling possibly as a matter of political expediency, or maybe as a long term economic plan, or both.

Although there seems to be a plan (of sorts) to change over to the Euro eventually, successive British governments have stated that "The time is not right" for either Britain or the EU for Britain to make the change now.

The British Pound is still a major component of the world's money markets and any sudden, ill-prepared shifts in the balance of world economies may have drastic and far reaching ill-effects.

The subject of a British change of currency may even go to a public referendum providing that several prerequisite economic criteria are met.