Jakubclaret wrote:I wasn’t born pre 1975 so I can’t think of a better excuse than that, sorry can’t help you on that score, maybe some of the older posters will have a better idea of what went on then & the feelings around that time, actually I’d be interested to hear that if anybody else posts regarding the 1975 referendum.
The British people were told that Harold Wilson had renegotiated our deal with the " European Economic Community " , after the Conservatives had taken the country into the " Common Market " on January 1st 1973. As the name implied, the electorate was told that it was a " Common Market ", where goods and services could be bought and sold without tariffs etc . There was never a Referendum before entry, that happened after the event on 5th June 1975 .
Prior to entry, there had been murmurings about loss of Sovereignty, and you must remember that this was only 30 years after the end of the War. Most men and many women, over 50 were likely to have been in the Military during that time, and a majority of men aged 34 and over would have done their 2 years National Service. Many would have had family killed or seriously wounded during the war. This is a quote from Ted Heath's TV address on entry ....
“There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified.”
Heath knew perfectly well he would not win a Referendum, especially if he outlined the true long term aims of the " Common Market ". FCO document 30/1048, dated April 1971 ( Released under the 30 year rule in 2001 ), shows that the Government were fully aware of the long term aims of the European project. Here are a few excerpts .....
11. " Membership of the Communities will involve us in extensive limitations upon our freedom of action. " For the first time ever, Parliament is binding its successors.
" The loss of external sovereignty will however increase as the Community develops, according to the intention of the preamble to the Treaty of Rome "to establish the foundations of an even closer union among the European peoples ".
12. (ii) The power of the European Court to consider the extent to which a UK statute is compatible with Community Law will indirectly involve an innovation for us, as the European Court's decisions will be binding on our courts which might then have to rule on the validity or applicability of the United Kingdom statute.
18..but it will be in the British interest after accession to encourage the development of the Community toward an effectively harmonised economic, fiscal and monetary system and a fairly closely coordinated and consistent foreign and defence policy. If it came to do so then essential aspects of sovereignty both internal and external would indeed increasingly be transferred to the Community itself.
22.. Even with the most dramatic development of the Community the major member states can hardly lose the "last resort" ability to withdraw in much less than three decades. The Community's development could produce before then a period in which the political practicability of withdrawal was doubtful. If the point should ever be reached at which inability to renounce the Treaty (and with it the degeneration of the national institutions which could opt for such a policy) was clear, then sovereignty, external, parliamentary and practical would indeed be diminished. After entry there would be a major responsibility on HMG and on all political parties not to exacerbate public concern by attributing unpopular measures or unfavourable economic developments to the remote and unmanageable workings of the Community.
24 (ii) The transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government.
24 (v) ...The more the Community is developed ... the more Parliamentary sovereignty will be eroded. ...The right ... to withdraw will remain for a very considerable time. ...The sovereignty of the State will surely remain unchallenged for this century at least.
25. The impact of entry upon sovereignty is closely related to the blurring of distinctions between domestic political and foreign affairs, to the greater political responsibility of the bureaucracy of the Community and the lack of effective democratic control.
If you've read this post so far, thank you. You may be of the Remainer pursuasion, a position I respect. However, I hope this shows some of the reasons that some of us feel so strongly about the Sovereignty of the British people, and how it was given away by our elected representatives, after misleading the electorate and without our consent.
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