Non-Party Organisations and Campaigns on European Integration in Britain, 1945-1986: Political and Public Activism
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NON-PARTY ORGANISATIONS AND CAMPAIGNS ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN BRITAIN, 1945-1986: POLITICAL AND PUBLIC ACTIVISM By DAVID WILLIAM RICHARDSON A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern History School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham August 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. DEDICATION For Mum, Dad and Steph. ABSTRACT This thesis is about non-party and non-governmental organisations campaigning for and against European integration in Britain between 1945 and 1986. These groups have so far been largely overlooked by studies on Britain’s relationship with Europe. The thesis will examine how these groups operated between the spheres of public activism and institutional politics. They targeted the general public directly with the aim of becoming popular mass movements, and focused on emotive and populist themes and adopted a moralistic tone as part of a broad non-party or cross-party appeal. Old-fashioned methods of activism, including pamphleteering and mass meetings, were used to cultivate a groundswell of support. However, these groups were not able to wrest control of the EEC membership issue away from Westminster. In the case of anti-EEC groups, attempts to acquire political influence and attract more parliamentarians to the campaign were at odds with the “anti-establishment” or “anti-political” tone adopted by sections of their support. Divisions over whether to adopt a more “insider” strategy of lobbying and adopting the model of a research-based think-tank or whether to continue seeking mass support stifled the campaign. Disagreement over strategy, and the confused position between public protest and Westminster politics, caused the anti- EEC campaign’s to fail. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincerest thanks go to my supervisors Professor Matthew Hilton and Professor Nick Crowson, for being so supportive, encouraging, and accommodating. The financial support I have received from their project studying non-governmental organisations, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, has been vital. I am very grateful for their comments and contributions, both from different but equally valuable perspectives. I would also like to thank Dr Chris Moores and Dr Kieran Connell for their personal and professional support during my time at Birmingham. I am also grateful for the constructive responses from those in attendance at the New Approaches to Political History conference at the German Historical Institute in London, the Postgraduate Conference at the University of Birmingham and the Europe 1945-1965 Comparative and Transnational Approaches conference at the University of Reading, at which parts of this work were presented. I am grateful for the help of the staff at various institutions who have assisted me in researching this thesis, particularly to the staff at the archives reading room at the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics, who were always extremely helpful and friendly and provided a great deal of information on the Campaign for an Independent Britain catalogue from which much of this thesis has utilised. I would also like to thank the staff at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Hull History Centre, the Labour History Centre in Manchester, the Parliamentary Archives in the House of Lords Record Office, the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University, and Special Collections at University College London for their assistance. I am especially grateful to my family and friends for their patience, encouragement and support. I would particularly like to thank Claire Whitbread and Katie Weston for their support in the closing stages. A special mention must also go to Neil Jennings, Elizabeth Shaw and Karin Malmberg for accommodating me during my myriad research trips to London. CONTENTS List of abbreviations Page Introduction 1 Chapter One: 40 ‘Keepers of the Grail’? Pro-European integration pressure groups in Britain, 1945-1961 Chapter Two: 95 ‘But what of the people…?’: The British anti-EEC movement, 1961-1973 Chapter Three: 166 ‘Demagoguery with a vengeance’?: Anti-EEC organisations and the referendum, 1973-75 Chapter Four: 220 The ‘dilemma of politics’: the anti-EEC campaign and the façade of scepticism, 1975-1986 Conclusions 287 Bibliography 306 ABBREVIATIONS Organisations ACML: Anti-Common Market League BACMC: British Anti-Common Market Campaign BHL: British Housewives League BiE: Britain in Europe BLR: British League of Rights CACMIS: Conservative Anti-Common Market Information Service CGE: Conservative Group for Europe CIA: Central Intelligence Agency CMC: Common Market Campaign CMSC: Common Market Safeguards Campaign CMEU: Christian Movement for European Unity CND: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament COFER: Conservatives for European Reform ELEC: European League for Economic Co-operation EM: European Movement EUF: European Union of Federalists FBM: Forward Britain Movement FU: Federal Union KBO: Keep Britain Out LCE: Labour Committee for Europe LCMC: Labour Common Market Committee LNU: League of Nations Union NCMPC: National Common Market Petition Council NRC: National Referendum Campaign PEP: Political and Economic Planning PFM: Political Freedom Movement RBCMC: Referendum Before Common Market Committee SBC: Safeguard Britain Campaign SEN: Save Europe Now TUACM: Trade Unions Against the Common Market UEA: United Europe Association UEM: United Europe Movement UKCEM: United Kingdom Council of the European Movement UKIP: UK Independence Party UNA: United Nations Association WACM: Women Against the Common Market Terms CAP: Common Agricultural Policy EEC: European Economic Community EU: European Union VAT: Value Added Tax INTRODUCTION At the time of writing, the question of Britain’s membership of the European Union is once again at the heart of British political debate. The Conservative government’s proposal for a referendum on British EU membership by 2017 has ensured that the issue will re-emerge and continue to be a subject of dispute both inside and outside of Westminster.1 It is a subject that has consistently drifted in and out of the British political agenda ever since the first steps towards European political and economic integration after the Second World War. British governments on the whole have been half-hearted towards involvement in European integration since declining to participate in the Schuman Plan in 1950, due to wariness of supranational development, the perception of Britain as a global power and a strong attachment to the Commonwealth. Successive governments were similarly negative towards integration, and favoured a free trade area in spite of the European Economic Community’s foundation in 1957. Declining economic performance and the psychological impact of the Suez crisis led to a reversal of policy, and two British applications to join the EEC were vetoed in the 1960s. After Britain became an EEC member in 1973, it was still seen as an intransigent partner, holding a referendum on membership in 1975, and criticising numerous aspects of EEC policy, particularly regarding Britain’s budgetary contribution. The Conservative Party became increasingly sceptical of European integration in the late 1980s, particularly after Margaret Thatcher’s critical Bruges Speech in 1988, and this strand of right- wing Euroscepticism has remained strong ever since. 1 Sparrow, A., “David Cameron’s Europe speech – the key points”, 23 January 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/23/david-camerons-europe-speech-points, retrieved 1 April 2013 1 Euroscepticism has gradually emerged into the British political mainstream since the early 1990s, and attitudes ranging from antipathy to hostility are prevalent in numerous MPs from all major political parties. However, the most prominent advocates of British withdrawal from the EU are currently the UK Independence Party (UKIP), whose rise in popularity further reflects a resurgence in Euroscepticism amongst the British public. Yet despite the recent emergence of UKIP as a political force, its current leader Nigel Farage has consistently sought to distance it from the three major political parties. In response to David Cameron’s claim that UKIP contained ‘some pretty odd people’, Farage declared that he was both ‘here as a campaigner’ and was a ‘conviction politician’.2 The recent departure of UKIP’s chief executive, who described the party as ‘a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs’ after his efforts to professionalise the party were resisted, raises further questions as to UKIP’s position on the political landscape.3 This tension between public campaigning and gaining political support and influence within Westminster has both placed the anti-EU movement in a unique position between the realms of institutional politics and mass movements, and historically has stifled the development of a successful anti-EU campaign. This thesis will look at the development of non-party and