First Referendum (eBook)

Reassessing Britain's Entry to Europe, 1973 75

Lindsay Aqui (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
328 Seiten
Manchester University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5261-4521-5 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1975 the UK voted 'yes', by 67%, to the European Community (EC). Since 1 January 1973, when the UK first joined, Edward Heath and Harold Wilson sought a fundamental transformation of the UK's relationship with the EC in terms of membership and public opinion. Despite the majority in favour of membership, the transformation was never achieved.

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Although the United Kingdom's entry to the European Community (EC) in 1973 was initially celebrated, by the end of the first year the mood in the UK had changed from 'hope to uncertainty'. When Edward Heath lost the 1974 General Election, Harold Wilson returned to No. 10 promising a fundamental renegotiation and referendum on EC membership. By the end of the first year of membership, 67% of voters had said 'yes' to Europe in the UK's first-ever national referendum. Examining the relationship between diplomacy and domestic debate, this book explores the continuities between the European policies pursued by Heath and Wilson in this period. Despite the majority vote in favour of maintaining membership, Lindsay Aqui argues that this majority was underpinned by a degree of uncertainty and that ultimately, neither Heath nor Wilson managed to transform the UK's relationship with the EC in the ways they had hoped possible. -- .

Autor

Lindsay Aqui is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Inhalt

Introduction: The beginning of a ‘very exciting time’
1 The road to membership

Section I: The first year of membership
2 Crisis and instability
3 Challenging the common agricultural policy
4 Creating a regional policy

Section II: The renegotiation
5 Renegotiation: Objectives and strategy
6 The CAP revisited
7 Consolidating the ERDF
8 The budget and the end of the renegotiation

Section III The referendum
9 Britain in Europe and the National Referendum Campaign
10 The outcome

Conclusions
Appendix I: Louis Harris International’s research methodology
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.8.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 16 black & white illustrations
• Verlagsort: Manchester
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: 1970s • Crisis • Edward Heath • European Community • European Integration • harold wilson • Referendum • renegotiation • Sovereignty • United Kingdom
• ISBN-10: 1-5261-4521-9 / 1526145219
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5261-4521-5 / 9781526145215