DEBATE IN BRITAIN MARKETEERS’ HARD TASK TO CONVINCE A MAJORITY

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 12

DEBATE IN BRITAIN MARKETEERS’ HARD TASK TO CONVINCE A MAJORITY

(By i

ANDREW ALEXANDER.

in the "Daily Telegraph." London)

, IReprinted by arrangement! n /-■ Ihe person to be pitied most during the alleged great debate on the i om > mon - I’kct mus t surely be the uncommitted voter. Crouched in Nohj Mans Land, beneath a hail of missiles, deafened by bombardment and I counter-bombardment, he has also to endure lurid threats from each side. It s your last chance to save yourself,” both sides bawl at him with equal s conviction.

v The Government and its 1 allies, still disturbed to find 1 the country predominantly anti-Market but still, one ? fears, dangerously short of "a real understanding of the ’reasons is now laying 5 down a final barrage in - which, like some First World War battlefield, just about ? every square foot of the elec- i ’ torate is mathematically I ■ doomed to several direct hits. ’ It is all very confusing. ’ And annoying too, since some of the propaganda is ‘ silly or offensive. Indeed, we I • may well have reached the! ’ stage where much of the 1 propaganda has become 'entirely counter-productive. " Nothing is more conducive to pro-Market feelings than listening to some of the anti- | Marketeers and reading some I of the anti-Market propaganda. Mild nonsense There is a lot of relatively!' i mild nonsense, tinged with i plain xenophobia, which ; suggests that Britain is i somehow debasing herself to 1 i join with mere Continentals ' /who are incompetent and! 1 unwashed, and only waiting .’to rush in and take advantage of Britain’s National i| /Health Service. There is also 11 . some remarkably odd propa- i . ganda on the wing and not ! all of its from the Protestantj l ’ Alliance and other bodies 1 I who believe that the Treaty 1 ' of Rome is a Popish plot. JI know of one respected businessman who has been cir-i Jculating a memorandum { which speaks of prison with- : out trial for opponents of the Market once we are in! j Almost maddened into an defence of the Common Mar- , ket, one now turns hopefully to the pro-Marketeers’ propa- . ganda. But there one finds economic growth talked j about as if it were an infection, automatically contracted on entry. We are going into Europe, t comes the Marketeers’ sug- 1 gestion, to give the Six < "leadership” an insolent i and patronising suggestion. ' Europe should achieve its f natural unity and speak with t one voice, they say. It is i thus that these "pro-Euro- t peans” write off at a stroke a (to borrow a phrase) the a whole history and nature of t European development and its j supreme cultural achieve-« ments. Then there is the White i Paper, one passage in which/ states that' membership of| c the Community would involve c “no Question of anv erosion s

lof essential national sov|ereignty.” A plain lie That is a plain lie; there lis no other word for it. In (fact a very good case can be (made out for giving up some basic national sovereignty. But there is no justification whatever for deception. Back, back into No-Man’s Land! Or, since the onus of proof must be on those who want to change the status quo, why not back into the anti-Market camp itself. It is certainly the biggest camp and likely to remain so. Politicians are in danger of deluding themselves if they think it will be easy to shift ! public opinion to a big proMarket majority. I There are, roughly speaking, three groups in the anti-Market sector of public opinion. First, there is the “If in doubt, don’t” school. Second, there are those who fear rising prices. Third, there are those who object on what may be collectively termed “political” grounds. These categories frequently overlap. The instinct of the first group should certainly not be derided. It is the same instinct which produces that political stability which the Prime Minister insists that the Six themselves admire and would like to absorb.

The second group is large and surely growing. The difficulty for the Marketeers is ithat. while the advantages of I joining the Six are speculative (or “dynamic,” as they say), the disadvantages are distinctly tangible. It may be that the rise in

the cost of food will mean only so many pence per head per week. But in the country’s present frame of mind this is an ominous admission. From a Government which promised to curb inflation—and succeeded in doubling it—the admission that a step will involve [definite price increases (sounds alarming indeed. The third category is both important and under-rated. The Government itself seems not to have noticed the I significance of the violent {swing in public opinion over; recent years from a huge' majority for to a huge majority against the Market. Officially this is ascribed to General de Gaulle’s rebuffs. What is overlooked is that the switch in opinion has accompanied a switch in argument. When membership of the {Common Market was first [applied for, the British people were told that the grounds were "economic.” Nearly all the talk was about tariffs and .trade. Now the pre-eminent ‘factor is “political,” with {emphasis on the new power unit of “Europe." People have become sus-| ipicious of being asked to | pay an “economic" price for a “political” advantage. It smacks too much of the sort jof bad bargain which politicians are constantly offering sceptical voters. Loss of identity Nor is it much good appealing to the nation on the defence issue. That may [indeed be crucial. But since I both parties have been econo|mising on defence, and openly priding themselves on their economies, it is rather much to expect the nation to feel other than lulled into a false sense of security. What the “political hostility” of the voter really ' boils down to is a sense ofj deep suspicion, a gut-feel-! ing, that he does not belong! with the Continentals. He is fearful about a loss of identity, not just of national identity (in a federation) but ! also of personal identity (in a super-State). A reading of anti-Market correspondence to M.P.s will often show how this sort of feeling has! grown. | Arguments about personafl or national identity are, of i course, philosophical and difficult. It is this which: sometimes accounts for the 1 !

i [very strangeness of the I arguments advanced against • entry. Prize answers to the ques- ' tion "Why are you against ■ the Market” are now 1 {swopped by political workers 1 rather as they swap favourite ‘ canvassing stories at election time. But the fact that silly answers are given does not mean that the public is in a ' silly or frivolous mood. ;’ Some may indeed mutter ’ that they do not wish to • speak French, that they do .[not wish to lose the Queen , or that they are frightened of /losing freedom of speech. But answer that complaint i and they promptly resurrect another. They are looking ► {for any excuse not to join ; i because they have a deepi seated feeling that they do not belong. t Range of phobias • Moreover, the proposed [ European Community represents to many the culmina- ' tion of all they fear in the [ current obsession with size. . It stirs up a whole range of ! phobias—about the remoteness of government, the [{impersonality of authority, . the growth of megalithic firms, the proliferation of ' bureaucrats, the depersonal- { isation of employment. Some Marketeers would do well to realise not only what {they are up against but also what fears they themselves are arousing in the minds of ■ an electorate. ( | There also begins to , appear ominous signs of . class division in the argu- \ ment. The professional and I managerial classes feel much !: more warmly towards Europe . than the less sophisticated. They can identify more with Europe; they may feel at home with Continentals; they can dream a delightful dream '[of retiring to a cottage in [{Provence. Not so with '{manual workers, skilled or {unskilled. They do not share I this feeling of identity. They 'are more concerned, too, ’{about the price of butter. To I [them the lure of being able •to buy a Porsche so much [ cheaper means nothing. If Labour succeeds in exploiting the class aspect lof all this, the Tories are lin for long-term trouble. Government propaganda will (have to be better than it is now to reassure the electorate. let alone to make the majority enthusiastic for the Market.