Unit 6D: International Politics and the UK
Simon Lightfoot
Lecturer in European Studies at Liverpool John Moores University writes for BBC Parliament |
 Making a platform of the Pound doesn't guarantee election victory |
Ever since the EEC (now EU) was founded in 1957 it has been a controversial issue in UK politics.
Back in 1957, Britain refused to join the club because it feared losing sovereignty and its world influence with the Commonwealth and the USA.
But by the early 1960s many in the UK had come to realise that EU membership was inevitable if the UK was to preserve a role for itself.
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After two failed attempts to join in 1961 and 1967, the Conservative government of Edward Heath took the UK into the EU in 1973.
This move was opposed by the Labour Party, who, when they returned to office in 1974, proposed a referendum on UK membership.
To avoid splitting the party, the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, took the unusual step of suspending collective responsibility.
The British people supported staying in the EU by 67.2% to 32.8%.
Thatcher's euroscepticism
As a free marketeer, when Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979 she was opposed to the further development of political union.
She feared the imposition of the types of policies she had fought to remove from British life: characterised as, "socialism via the back door".
In contrast she actively promoted the Single European Act, which she saw as crucial to complete the European free market that she supported.
However, she strongly opposed any attempts to get the UK to join the single currency and it was this issue that proved to be her downfall.
The issue of European integration was also divisive during John Major's Government (1990-1997).
Hampered by a small majority, he tried to ensure a balance between the pro-European wing of the Conservative Party and the increasingly vocal Eurosceptic wing.
New Labour, new approach to the EU?
By 1997, the Labour Party had shifted from its 1983 election manifesto promise to leave the EU to stating that the UK would display a more positive approach to the EU.
The UK has attempted to shake off its "awkward partner" tag by signing up to the Social Chapter and also by proposing developments in line with the present government's economic thinking.
But the Labour Government has been reluctant to publicly support Euro membership, preferring to stick to its "wait and see" policy based upon Gordon Brown's Five Economic Tests.
In the 2001 election, William Hague attempted to make opposition to the Euro a central plank of the Conservative Party's campaign.
According to the majority of commentators, the fact this campaign did not succeed shows that whilst Europe is an important issue it is not central to most voters.
This is also borne out by the relative lack of success of the anti-EU Referendum Party in the 1997 election.
However it is clear that, although often disguised, divisions exist in all the UK's main political parties between those pro-Europeans who want the UK to become more actively engaged with the EU and those Eurosceptics who want the UK to disengage, some even to the point of withdrawing from the EU completely.
These divisions are then compounded by differing ideological views of how the European project should develop.
Should it be just an economic club or should the EU involve itself more fully in issues such as social and employment legislation?
� Dr Simon Lightfoot 2003
Liverpool John Moores University
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