Title: The EU: so where did it all go wrong?
Headings: The EU: so where did it all go wrong?
The EU: so where did it all go wrong?
Content: Despite widespread doubts over whether Britain would ever actually join, and despite the opposition of the Labour Party to membership on the terms proposed, the key Commons vote had been won comfortably, 356 to 244. Sixty-nine Labour rebels voted for entry; only 39 Tory rebels voted to stay out. And within two years, 67 per cent of the British people endorsed the UK’s membership in a referendum. The Labour leadership reversed its position – and one Margaret Thatcher, leader of the opposition, also took a prominent role in the Yes campaign. The No forces were represented by the likes of Tony Benn and the Tory hard Right. In the end, only the Western Isles and Shetland voted against. Both on the political spectrum and geographically, it seemed that only people on the margins were against the EEC. So exactly 40 years on, with a substantial majority of the British people – and even members of the Cabinet – now apparently backing withdrawal, how did Britain’s relationship with Brussels go sour? Part of the difficulty had, of course, been sown decades before 1973, when Britain, still seeing itself as much a world as a European power, chose to stand apart from the Common Market, and its forebear, the European Coal and Steel Community.