Euroscepticism in Contemporary British Politics: Opposition to Europe in the British Conservative and Labour Parties since 1945 - Reviews - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2002

Euroscepticism in Contemporary British Politics: Opposition to Europe in the British Conservative and Labour Parties since 1945. Anthony Forster. Routledge. [pounds sterling]65.00. 157 pages. ISBN 0-415-28731-6. The author's aim in this study is to discuss 'the impact of scepticism, both on the parties themselves and through them on Britain's policy towards Europe since 1945' and the way in which this scepticism has ebbed and flowed.

He achieves his aim first by defining and explaining 'scepticism' and then by surveying the period from 1945 to the present. He concentrates on six major issues: the unsuccessful membership applications of 1961 and 1971; the passage of Heath's Common Market legislation 1970-1972; the referendum of 1975; the Single European Act of 1986; the Maastricht Treaty's provisions for political and monetary union; and, finally, the continuing battle over monetary union and the euro. Prof. Forster shows that euro-scepticism has been a vibrant movement that has learned to adapt as the E.U. ha s grown ever more powerful. It has come a long way from the 'No' campaigners of 1975 but then, so too has the Common Market. (G.F.B.)