Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Graph
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise and Fall of British Social Democracy, 1945–2016
- 2 A European Love Affair, 1960–1973?
- 3 The Voices of Dissent, 1960–1973
- 4 The Referendum and its Aftermath, 1975–1983
- 5 The Tories Turn Against Europe, 1983–2005
- 6 Labour Changes Position, 1983–2005
- 7 Crisis, Renegotiation and Referendum, 2005–2016
- Conclusion
- Notes to the Text
- Bibliography and Other Sources
- Index
2 - A European Love Affair, 1960–1973?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Graph
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise and Fall of British Social Democracy, 1945–2016
- 2 A European Love Affair, 1960–1973?
- 3 The Voices of Dissent, 1960–1973
- 4 The Referendum and its Aftermath, 1975–1983
- 5 The Tories Turn Against Europe, 1983–2005
- 6 Labour Changes Position, 1983–2005
- 7 Crisis, Renegotiation and Referendum, 2005–2016
- Conclusion
- Notes to the Text
- Bibliography and Other Sources
- Index
Summary
It breaks my heart to see what is happening in our country today. A terrible strike is being carried on by the best men in the world. They beat the Kaiser's army and they beat Hitler's army. They never gave in. … Then there is the growing division … in our comparatively prosperous society between the South and the North and Midlands, which are ailing. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Earl of Stockton, formerly Harold Macmillan, maiden speech in House of Lords, 13 November 1984My passion in politics was for Europe. … I was converted to ‘the European ideal’ by Roy Jenkins. … It was a cause which Harold Macmillan embraced, and which Ted Heath consummated: it has been left to others to neglect it.
Julian Critchley MP, Tory ‘Wet’, 1986Introduction
The rise of Euroscepticism, and the intense emotions that accompanied it, raise the question: how and why did the UK become entwined with Europe in the first place? The Eurosceptic answer to this, of course, is that the British people were lied to in the 1970s. They were led to believe that membership of the EEC amounted to no more than participation in a Common Market, but without any diminution of British sovereignty. Only later did it dawn on the voters that they had inadvertently signed up to a project which would create a European superstate and would leave the UK as a mere province of an over-mighty Brussels. As Nigel Farage put it in 2016, discussing accession in 1973 and the referendum in 1975:
The British establishment knew it was giving away its decision-making powers. It would not admit this in public and it was prepared to be highly duplicitous in covering it up. I believe most British people would say the British establishment lied. I believe most British people would be right.
This argument – and Farage was by no means alone in advancing it – is a curious one. For one thing, the sovereignty argument was made, as we shall see in Chapters 3 and 4, loud and long by the opponents of entry. The fact that this was more than a Common Market was obvious as soon as the UK joined, if it had not been obvious before.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Europe and the Decline of Social Democracy in Britain: From Attlee to BrexitFrom Attlee to Brexit, pp. 59 - 92Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019