Title: Britain and the EU: A long and rocky relationship - BBC News
Headings: Britain and the EU: A long and rocky relationship
Britain and the EU: A long and rocky relationship
The weight of history
BBC History: British history
An insular mentality?
Prof Vernon Bogdanor: Britain and the Continent
An end to war
Winston Churchill's 1946 Zurich speech (full text)
The Schuman declaration (EU site)
Step by step - how the EU grew
Britain wants in
James Ellison: Is Britain more European than it thinks?
Britain gets in
British prime ministers' key speeches on Europe
Role reversal
The 1970s - really that bad?
Rising antipathy
Margaret Thatcher's 1988 Bruges speech (full text)
BBC History: Thatcherism and the end of the post-war consensus
Humiliation
1992 and all that
Treaty of Maastricht
Building bridges...
Brown: I would have quit over euro
…and burning them?
Britain: Better off out or in?
View comments
More on this story
Around the BBC

Content: There was no immediate economic fillip - in fact strikes and power cuts continued, and rising oil prices caused double-digit inflation. British prime ministers' key speeches on Europe
Role reversal
image copyright
Getty Images
image caption
Margaret Thatcher campaigned for EEC membership in 1975
image copyright
PA
image caption
Michael Foot (left) and his left-wing Labour comrades wanted Britain out
In the 1970s, the Conservatives backed British membership - though there was some opposition on the right of the party. The most concerted opposition came from the left of the Labour party, led by Tony Benn and Michael Foot. Mr Foot's 1983 Labour manifesto promised withdrawal from the EEC - by then more commonly called the European Community (EC) - after the pro-Europe wing of the party had split off to form the SDP. "Europe has been a toxic issue in British politics," Prof Bogdanor says, not just because it caused division between parties, "but also deep divisions within the parties". "Some might argue that the fundamental conflict in post-war British politics is not so much between left and right as between those who believe that Britain's future lies with Europe and those who believe it does not." The 1970s - really that bad? Rising antipathy
image caption
Jacques Delors met fierce, but ultimately futile, resistance from Britain
In 1984, Margaret Thatcher corrected what was seen as an injustice, negotiating a permanent rebate for Britain on its EC contributions, because it received much less in agricultural subsidies than some other countries, notably France. The 1980s saw a growing divide between Britain and Brussels, where the socialist Jacques Delors had taken the helm at the European Commission and was steering towards a more federal Europe and a single currency. Mrs Thatcher was uncompromising.