Britain and E.E.C.: 'Baby, it’s cold outside’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33753, 28 January 1975, Page 15

Britain and E.E.C.: 'Baby, it’s cold outside’

(N.Z.P.A.Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, January 27. The British Labour Government’s move to let the people decide on Britain’s European destiny brings the nation’s most emotive issue back into the centre of politics with incalculable consequences.

It signals the beginning of a great new debate, creates constitutional precedents, raises questions about voting techniques, and, in effect, sets aside the historic decision of a sovereign Parliament. That Parliament, on October 28, 1971, voted decisively by 356 to 244, for British entry into the European Common Market, apparently settling the issue. Now the Labour Prime Minister (Mr Wilson), after more than a decade of debate and division on the issue, has reopened the argument by ordering a referendum in June—the first such poll in British history. Europe or the open sea? The question evokes a thousand years of island history, and affects the way the British people think of themselves as a nation.

Feelings run deep. Personalities, national pride, and the i fate of political parties are ; closely involved. Over the, next five months, as the re- ' ferendum moves to what | could be a noisy climax, both i the Labour Party and the ■ Opposition Conservatives i may come under strain. j Britain is in the grip of ■ such a daunting economic crisis that some Parliamen- i tarians foresee tire emergence i of a coalition government i within months. “It is a very j frightening situation,” com- i rnented Mr David Marquand, a political historian and proEuropean Labour member of Parliament. “There is a dis- ( tinct danger that either of , the two main parties could , tear themselves apart if they fight a savage and hysterical , campaign.” The greatest danger, some observers say, is the possibility of total Labour disarray on the European issue at a time when the Conservatives, as Many of them privately admit, offer little prospect of a viable alternative government. In interviews, parliamentarians of both parties agree that the Conservatives are suffering a crisis of confi- ; dence. They attribute this to a loss of confidence among their leaders, baffled by their

inability to find a way of stopping Britain’s economic and industrial decline. “It was people like those who gave Britain in the past perhaps the most talented ruling class in the world,” said Mr Marquand, the author of several political biographies. “Now they have no answers, and they admit it.” A similar uneasiness grips many leading British businessmen, who traditionally provide the economic and philosophical inspiration for Conservative governments. Though even the former Prime Minister, Mr Edward Heath, has chided his fellowConservatives about "the unacceptable face of British capitalism,” faith in the old free enterprise ethos has diminished among leaders of industry. A political observer who attended a high-level strategy session of the Confederation of British Industry, said that several industrial chiefs frankly admitted that they had no instant solutions for economic solvency. Partly for these reasons, some pro-Europeans are muting their criticisms of Mr Wilson’s Labour Government. They feel that its close links with organised

f labour give it a better chance : to maintain industrial harmony at a time of grow- ■ ing trade union power. But t many of them, along with [ some constitutional authori- . ties, denounce the referendum as “somehow, an ’ un-British device,” departing I from a long tradition of parliamentary pre-eminence. ’ Ironically, it is precisely r the question of the loss of 1 parliamentary sovereignty • that is becoming the chief grievance among critics of ■ British membership. i “It is the fundamental ■ issue of sovereignty that ’ will decide the result of the ! referendum,” said Mr Neil ! Marten, an acknowledged • leader of anti-European Conservative members of the ( House. “I am confident that the British people will vote ‘ to come out. The feeling ’ against staying in is very broadly based across the ; country.” , Mr Marten offered to . make a modest bet on Britain’s withdrawal, but pro-Europeans argue just as ’ passionately that opinion is ; swinging in their favour now. Mr Marquand said ’ that he would wager, also [ modestly, on the people

deciding that Britain should remain within the Community.

Pro-Europeans sum up their hope for a “yes” verdict in the phrase, “Baby, it’s cold outside.” They mean that Britain has nowhere else to go except Europe now that the Commonwealth and European Free Trade Association options are thought to be closed. Many critics regard the referendum as an absurd charade: they say that it was finally adopted by Mr Wilson —once opposed to referenda on principle—as a desperate last resort to prevent a Labour split over Europe. Labour is broadly divided into three main schools on the Common Market issue—-one-third against membership, one-third for, and onethird on the fence.

In the long debate, passions run deep. When the “Spectator” was strongly crusading against entry under its former editor, George Gale, wits used to say that the anti-European slant spilled over into every article in the magazine except the weekly column on horse racing. Uncertainties lie ahead. In last Thursday’s House of Commons discussion of the referendum, Mr Wilson and

Mr Heath agreed on at least one point: that it was an important constitutional innovation. Mr Wilson said that the Government would make a clear recommendation to voters after revised membership terms had been negotiated.

Britain is seeking changes in the controversial Common Agricultural Policy, in regional policy, and in its contribution to the European Community’s budget. Mr Wilson said that because the Common Market issue was a unique one which divided both politicians and people, his Cabinet Ministers would be free to campaign for or against staying in the Community. This freedom for Ministers to cast aside traditional Cabinet solidarity involves a suspension of the cherished British principle of collective responsibility. The last time this happened was in 1932, when Liberal members of a National Government were allowed a free vote against a Cabinet decision to impose import tariffs as a protection against a slump. The Conservative Party, which took Britain into Europe on January 1, 1973, plans to fight forthcoming legislation establishing the referenidum machinery.