Dragging Britain into Europe
MANDER, John
AFTER THE LONG COURTSHIP Dragging Britain into Europe BY JOHN MANDER LONDON IF AMERICANS arc confused about the attitude of the average Britisher toward the Common Market, it is perfectly...
...it had much dedicated Labor and Liberal support both inside Parliament and out...
...They would vote with the government or, not to split the party, abstain...
...Public support remained considerable...
...That the great majority of the elite—from Oxford Dons to city businessmen—were strongly European was evident from a symposium published in Encounter in 1963...
...There were, to be sure, staunch anti-Europeans as well—most notably Hugh Gaitskell and Harold Wilson...
...And it should be stressed that it is a "No," not a "Don't Know," vote...
...and the "anti" vote on the Conservative benches is thought to number 40-60 —with severe whipping (Heath is an ex-Chief Whip) it could possibly be reduced to between 10 and 20...
...They know it could split the party, even though it would win Labor a General Election if one were to be held now...
...So when Macmillan promised that this piece of surgery, though highly necessary, would be almost painless, most people were prepared to go along...
...The arguments that had seemed persuasive in 1961 still seemed so in 1967...
...It has been suggested that Churchill lost faith in the movement he helped launch, or that while he thought the French and Germans and Italians should pool their resources, he was not prescribing the same treatment for Britain...
...It has become a commonplace in England to assert that in any controversy between the Establishment and the People, the Establishment wins out in the end...
...Still worse, the political leadership of Europe had passed from Churchill's Britain to de Gaulle's France and Adenauer's Germany...
...Of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan one is less sure...
...Thus popular support for "going into Europe," which was at its height when the first application was made exactly 10 years ago, has melted away—today only 20 per cent are prepared to supply the itinerant pollster with a "Yes...
...It looks, then, as if Heath is bound to win, either on his own (as he would undoubtedly prefer), or in alliance with the Liberal and Labor pro-Europeans, who would be numerous enough to swamp the dissidents in his own camp...
...Duncan Sandys and other Conservatives during the early days of the cold war...
...AFTER THE LONG COURTSHIP Dragging Britain into Europe BY JOHN MANDER LONDON IF AMERICANS arc confused about the attitude of the average Britisher toward the Common Market, it is perfectly understandable—the British could hardly be more confused themselves...
...Harold Macmillan and his JOHN MANDER, a contributing editor of Encounter, frequently reports from Great Britain in these pages...
...The Liberals remain committed...
...There are rumors that Callaghan, a dark horse, is holding himself in check to take the leadership from Wilson with the help of the Left, the trade unionists and the antimarketeers in general...
...In view of their past commitment, the Conservative and Liberal parties could not oppose the new Wilson initiative...
...but neither was there general rejoicing...
...This may not be the height of democracy, but Heath knows he has no alternative...
...The friendly public smile that had greeted Macmillan's gallant sally had turned into an apathetic yawn...
...Of course, "Europeanism" has always been an elite cause in Great Britain...
...Sensing this, Churchill and his ministers almost certainly realized that to press forward with "going into Europe"—even had they wished to—might cost the Conservatives their still fragile majority...
...TO put it bluntly, the Prime Minister must use the elite to drive through measures which, at the moment, nearly two thirds of the public would reject...
...The elite was still pro-European—by now, after all, the Continentals had moved even further ahead...
...Britain was lagging sadly behind...
...In any event, there was life in the Old Man of Paris still...
...The Continentals were moving forward rapidly in the economic field...
...The elite is by and large pro-European (especially industry), and a recent repeat of Encounter?, 1963 survey shows that pro-Europeans continue in the majority among the intelligentsia (though they are a good deal less numerous than they were eight years ago...
...Both Wilson and Callaghan, however, must know the dangers of a demagogic anti-European campaign...
...The reason usually given for this slump is simple attrition...
...But it would be fair to say that by the early '60s something like a national consensus in favor of the Market had emerged...
...My own feeling, however, is that it may be precisely this popular recognition that "we" will not influence the decision anyway that accounts for the "No" vote of 62 per cent in the latest Harris poll...
...Ten years later the scenario had changed...
...The Gaul-list vetoes in 1963 and 1967 have left their mark: Why expose oneself to such humiliation a third time...
...This time few wept...
...the subject was becoming a bore...
...This puts Labor in a difficult position...
...Perhaps the truth is rather that by 1951, when the European tide was running strong on the Continent, the British people had retreated into a kind of isolationism—action on an international scale was something for the Americans...
...ministers knew that Britain had made a grave mistake in 1951: The Common Market was turning out to be a success...
...The Labor party has not, at this writing, determined its policy: The parliamentary party is probably about evenly split, although the party in the country is surely as anti-European as the general public...
...He could kick, and he did...
...But Heath has no need to call an election for four more years and...
...And Ted Heath is a stubborn man...
...It is certain that Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey and most of the ablest, younger ex-ministers—the probable core of the next Labor government —would refuse to back an all-out anti-European crusade...
...Given this history, present-day attitudes are more easily explicable...
...Thus on a free vote a pro-European majority of nearly 3-1 could be found in Parliament, roughly the proportion that exists among the elite— and the exact reverse of that among the voters...
...with Europe almost within his grasp, will hardly lead his party to defeat on this issue...
...Launched by Winston Churchill...
...But when Churchill returned to power in 1951 his government stood aloof from the Schuman plan and the European Coal and Steel Community...
...The second attempt, involving the conversion of Harold Wilson and most of the Labor leadership to Eu-ropeanism, was a much less dramatic affair...
...They are being told by both pro- and anti-marketeers that going into Europe is the most important political decision they are likely to witness in their lifetime...
...But the people are all too aware that they are not about to be consulted, that the politicians will settle it over their heads...
...Yet there was little real enthusiasm...
...Promarketcers—among whom I include myself—may regret this, but that is how it is going to be...
...But the popular support of the '60s has vanished, and Edward Heath is now faced with the task of leading the people who elected him a year ago (for quite different reasons) along what is bound to be a stony course...
Vol. 54 • June 1971 • No. 13
