Britain's Growing Identity Crisis

...Indeed, businessmen here no longer seem able to compete with the Germans, the Japanese, the Americans, or the French for lucrative markets...

...Another not inconceivable possibility is that the turnout or margin of acceptance will be low...

...Britain's relationship to Western Europe, and possibly its position in world affairs, hinges on the answer...

...When the Labor party returned to power in 1974, however, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, catering to his Left-wing, insisted on renegotiating the entry terms and on submitting the result to a national referendum...

...He announced hefty tax hikes for everyone, with drinkers, smokers and purchasers of electrical appliances and most luxury items particularly hard hit...

...a rapidly obsolescing industrial plant in need of massive infusions of investment for modernization...

...The human tragedy on Cyprus and the reflex attribution of blame to the United States diverted attention away from London's responsibility for the crisis...

...to obtain loans at bargain rates...

...The fragile state of its currency is only one aspect of Britain's economic troubles-and the worst may be yet to come...

...And too much energy is dissipated in preoccupations with status: One English buyer told me he knew of a small export firm that was doing quite well until the top salesman was fired because his go-getter talent was bringing him a higher salary than the owner's...

...On June 5 the country will vote in a referendum on the Common Market-the first in British history on a matter of public policy...

...Once the Greek Colonels deposed Archbishop Makarios last July, Britain, along with Turkey the guarantor of Cypriot independence, was bound by treaty to restore the status quo...

...The EEC, it is clear, is less a giant than a well-endowed youngster whose development depends very much on a proper and steady diet and on a benign and disciplined attention to its overall education...

...Nor should the Norwegian experience be forgotten: In 1972, against the recommendation of their government, the Norwegians rejected membership, and in the process shattered the political dominance of the moderate, Socialist-oriented Norwegian Labor party...

...Wilson, bucking the testy mood in his own party, says the renegotiated terms are beneficial to Britain and that continued membership "is best for the future of Britain, best for the Commonwealth, best for Europe, best for the developing world, and best for the wider world...

...Whitehall's unwillingness to live up to its treaty obligations demonstrated as nothing else could that the British no longer possessed the will to fulfill an overseas commitment...

...Then there are the nationalist fringe elements-English, Welsh, Scot, and Irish-whose bent is regionalist, isolationist and anti-European, and who seek a return to an island complete unto itself...

...labor unrest and inefficiency that are as much social as economic and technological in origin...

...In fact, that Britain is no longer a world power is a truism which needs repeating...

...costly and divisive tinkering with economic, welfare and educational policies by doctrinaire social engineers...

...They include the collectivists in the government-notably Michael Foot, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Barbara Castle, and Peter Shore-clever, articulate spokesmen who exercise disproportionate influence among a sizeable segment of the trade union movement...

...an Old Guard still harboring illusions about a world role, even though Britain's capability for intervention abroad is shrinking and the country is experiencing a tug of political wills over future foreign policy...

...The vision of a United States of Europe or of some kind of political unity has never taken hold, and should Britain vote to stay in, London could conceivably function as the bridge between America and the Continent's evolving European Community...

...Its mini-presences abroad-in Hong Kong (at the sufferance of Peking), Singapore, Sarawak, Oman, and Cyprus-foster a globalist deception...

...Furthermore, even though the Laborites are generally more pro-Israeli than the Conservatives-the consequence of shared social-democratic principles and an absence of any nostalgia for Arabs or empire-all political parties are constrained by an obvious and growing dependence on Arab investment...

...Were this to occur, Britain would be in for a period of unpredictable political drift, accompanied by early elections, a split in the Labor party and the aggravation of regional, economic and social cleavages...

...In short, after 40 years as an empire, Britain is reverting to the status of an island kingdom, and despite a continued strong attachment to the Commonwealth, its primary concerns are future relations with the EEC and the United States...

...For Britain, a solid commitment to the Common Market would mean a change-gradual to be sure, but inevitable nonetheless-in outlook: a break with its insularity from the Continent that has left such an indelible imprint on British character, attitudes and institutions...

...Actually, Britain's sober pragmatism may well be the most realistic stand for the Common Market as a whole...

...On the face of it, there should be no trouble...

...Probably because British pride was in need of a lift, correspondents dwelt on the trappings symbolizing negotiations between equals, rather than on the purposes underlying Moscow's courtship: namely, to gain backing for a European summit conference that would put the final seal of legitimacy on Soviet control of Eastern Europe...

...Hyperinflation threatens to exacerbate an economic situation already plagued by low productivity, wildcat strikes (that are often politically motivated) and lackluster management...

...Thus the British cannot be faulted for wooing the Arabs in the hope that they will provide much of the capital for the new investment and the modernization of industry the country desperately needs...

...By implication, Britain has little to contribute to a settlement in the Middle East, and Israel's willingness, never high to begin with, to accept a British guarantee as part of some overall agreement, must understandably be severely reduced...

...a festering, seemingly insoluble, Irish problem...

...And finally there is the extreme Left, whose impetus comes from the Communist party and its ambitious adherents in the unions...

...The leaderships of the three major parties-Labor, Conservative and Liberal-as well as most influential people in business, academia, the arts, and the media, all support a Yes vote...

...and to encourage Britain to further reduce its defense spending...

...The result was the sad chain of events that overtook the hapless Mediterranean island nation...

...Wilson implied as much on April 24 when, in announcing that the government had decided to take over British Leyland, the nation's General Motors, to save it from bankruptcy, he said: "What we must bring home to the country is that priority has got to be given to investment as against claims on consumption and excessive wages...

...Unfortunately, this is not a time of great ideas or impressive leadership...

...Implicit in all this was the message that the nation's easy ride is nearing an end: Either inflation, generated principally by labor's demand for 30 per cent pay raises, must be controlled, or unemployment will increase and welfare benefits will be reduced...

...Like the other Western democracies, Britain seems too wearied by domestic problems to design much for the future...

...Britain joined the EEC in 1971 under the Conservative party, then headed by Edward Heath, after a decade of equivocation by both sides...

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...a heavy dependence on Arab oil money to keep the bottom from dropping out of the pound...

...The population is being asked to respond to a single question: "Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community...

...One Frenchman, for instance, recently told me that whereas he feels completely at home traveling anywhere in Western Europe, he has merely to cross the Channel to feel he is in a truly foreign country...

...The portents are everywhere: An inflation galloping along unchecked at an annual rate in excess of 30 per cent...

...But the ordinary citizen is a little bored and very much confused...

...Paradoxically, the balloting comes at a moment when the steam has gone out of Western Europe's economic boom and when the quadrupling of oil prices following the October War has dramatically highlighted Europe's vulnerability to Arab blackmail...

...The formal opponents of Britain's membership in the EEC are a grabbag of zealous political fundamentalists...

...and just as France has its deep-rooted antipathy toward the Anglo-Saxons, Britain has its heady brew of Francophobia, spiked with vague fears of inundation by cheap labor from the Continent...

...Nevertheless, because it is extremely vulnerable to any "flight from the pound," Britain seems to be fixing its position on the Arab-Israeli conflict along the line established by the Arab states...

...Margaret Thatcher, the head of the Conservatives and the first woman in British history to lead a political party, is campaigning even more actively for EEC approval...

...Alvin Z. Rubinstein has spent the past academic year as a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University...

...Seeing the European Community as the embryo of a new economic superpower, Heath and the mandarins of the civil service decided to take Britain in, and thereby assure themselves a major voice in Europe's future...

...At present, two issues dominate the public's attention-inflation and the upcoming referendum on the European Economic Community (EEC...

...When Prime Minister Wilson visited the Soviet Union last February, the media were ecstatic over his "warm" and "enthusiastic" reception, treating it not as standard Kremlin razzle-dazzle, but as an indication that "Britain still counts in the world...

...ON THE EVE OF THE EEC VOTE Britain's Growing Identity Crisis BY ALVIN Z. RUBINSTEIN Cambridge One has a foreboding about the future of Britain that is easy to exaggerate but difficult to ignore...

...Although it has excellent contacts and willing Arab customers, British industry has difficulty delivering the goods...

...Since that time, satisfied by the new financial arrangements, he has moved to the center of the campaign to convince the electorate to vote "Yes...

...In 1974, for example, Britain expanded its exports to the Middle East by about 5 per cent, while West Germany did so by more than 100 per cent...

...The coverage brought to mind the fable of the bird who thought it was his song that shook the tree...

...But for all of that, it remains a most civil, decent, highly livable society, rich in tradition and talent, which could offer much to the Western world in the years ahead...

...There is a wistful belief among the Establishment that the country continues to have an important role to play outside of Western Europe...

...In the present local furor over the United States' actions or inactions on Cyprus, one should not lose sight of this country's paralysis during the affair, and what that may mean for the future of the entire area...

...In accordance with their obligation, the Turks immediately consulted with the Wilson government, but their proposal for prompt, joint action against the putschists was rejected-though British troops based on the island would have been able to do the job, as it turned out, in less than 24 hours...

...While the polls show a comfortable margin of public support for the Market, few people favor European political unity...

...In his April 15 budget address, Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey tried to make the grim financial realities clear, especially to the labor movement...

...Food subsidies and the majority of social services are being curtailed sharply, and defense expenditures, already deeply slashed, have been reduced by an additional 3 per cent...

...The sentiment is mutual...

...Similarly, when Alexander Shelepin was removed from the Politburo in April following his ill-received trip to Britain, the tendency of the press here was to attribute his fall largely to the "snub" Shelepin had encountered during the visit, not to the vagaries of the power struggle in the Kremlin...

...The pound, steadily declining on international money markets, is kept afloat by Saudi and Persian Gulf oil funds...

...The imperial hangup lingers on, too...

...Yet Britain's reduced commitments to NATO, its stiff military cuts (in the future the Navy will have only a local capability), its planned withdrawals from the Indian Ocean area, and, above all, its lamentable behavior in last year's Cyprus confrontation indicate the reality...

...As yet there are no indications that anyone is willing to stop the game of leap frog with prices and wages...