were Labour or the Conservatives more 'Euroskeptic' between 1945-1979?
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  were Labour or the Conservatives more 'Euroskeptic' between 1945-1979?
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Author Topic: were Labour or the Conservatives more 'Euroskeptic' between 1945-1979?  (Read 1301 times)
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Miamiu1027
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« on: January 19, 2015, 12:07:32 AM »

were Labour or the Conservatives more 'Euroskeptic' between 1945-1979?
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Miamiu1027
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« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2015, 12:44:19 AM »

in the UK
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2015, 01:25:17 AM »

Labour
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« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2015, 01:40:45 AM »

Yep, National Progressive is correct with Labour. Thatcher was the first Conservative to be wary of Europe from what I can gather. (And UKIP really tried to force the issue in the 90s despite having no members.)

Here's a passage from a book called Euroscepticism that I was able to find available online:

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stepney
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« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2015, 05:39:06 AM »



(And yes, the one on the right does indeed read "Europe or bust")

Of course, elements of the Bufton-Tufton Tory right were opposed to entry into the Common Market, while the more internationalist, Oxbridge educated Labour right were in favour. One only has to consider the positions of Enoch Powell and Roy Jenkins. But then, Enoch urged a vote for Labour in October 1974 to get us out whilst Roy had to form his own party because Labour were for coming out. On the whole, yes, of course Labour.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2015, 06:21:33 AM »

Labour didn't come around fully to the EEC until Jacques Delors was head of the Commission.
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Miamiu1027
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« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2015, 04:32:54 PM »

what was the basis of Labour Euroskepticism?  simple 'protectionist' union fears?
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stepney
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« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2015, 11:26:52 AM »

Labour men help me out, was it Ernie Bevin who said of entry into the European Coal and Steel Community, "The Durham miners wouldn't wear it"? But it was Churchill, that great European, who let matters slide because he was in his late 70s and half-gaga and Eden, his Foreign Secretary, didn't like the idea. By the time Eden had let the stage and Macmillan had come in, the chance was gone.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2015, 11:59:21 AM »

It sounds like the sort of thing he'd have said, certainly.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2015, 12:14:17 PM »

what was the basis of Labour Euroskepticism?  simple 'protectionist' union fears?

There was a widespread fear that the ECSC (and then EEC) would override domestic attempts at economic planning (this was the basis of Gaitskell's opposition to EEC membership, for instance). On the Left of the Party this went further; there was a tendency to describe the EEC as a 'capitalist club', for instance. By the 1970s opposition to the EEC within Labour was associated with the various Left factions (although there were still some Right opponents), many of which then supported a form of autarky.
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