FOR all the debate that raged at a York hotel about the merits or perils of joining the euro, only six of the more than 200 business people and politicians attending owned up to having been swayed one way or the other.

Lord Haskins, of the pro-euro Britain in Europe organisation, was pitted head-to-head with Martin Vander Weyer, of Business for Sterling, in a debate and lunch yesterday.

The event, at Le Meridien in Station Road, was sponsored by Yorkshire Forward, organised by the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, and chaired by the editor of the Evening Press, Liz Page.

Afterwards, a call for a show of hands of those whose minds had been changed by the bombardment and counter-bombardment of statistics on both sides yielded but a half-a-dozen. That was expected, perhaps from politicians who included Labour MPs Hugh Bayley, of York, and John Grogan, of Selby, plus Ryedale Tory MP, John Greenaway and Tory MEP, Robert Goodwill.

But it was in stark contrast to the 75 per cent who earlier had raised their hands to indicate that they were willing to be persuaded either way.

When twice asked - at the start and end of the debate - whether they considered that had sufficient information about the euro, fewer raised their hands at the end than they did at the beginning, assessed at just 28 per cent as opposed to 30 per cent.

So it was hard to tell how much effect Lord Haskins' argument had - that in the Yorkshire region 315,000 jobs depended on exports to the European Union, and that the euro was a further consolidation of the EU. He also argued in support of the economic prosperity it had brought to 300 million people along with "greater security than at any time in the last 1,000 years".

Just as unfathomable was the impact of Mr Vander Weyer's case, that adopting the euro meant risking loss of democratic control of our buoyant economy, at a time when there was scant evidence that the new currency was leading to greater efficiency across the whole eurozone.

Updated: 10:34 Tuesday, November 12, 2002