turning itself into a completely new form of transnational political entity can
continue if it becomes too large. The other problem is the variation in aim and
preferred speed of development, with some countries; notably Germany and
occasionally France, being eager to produce a fully fledged federal united states
of Europe, while others still wish to maintain considerable national autonomy.
Eurosceptic
Eurosceptic became journalistic shorthand for a range of political opinions in
the United Kingdom during the last decade of the 20th century. Obviously it
applied to the UK’s relations with theEuropean Union (EU), and obviously
it indicated people who were less than totally convinced that further and
deeper integration of the British political and economic system with those of
other EU member states was desirable. Beyond that, further precision is
impossible. The range of meaning varied enormously, even amongst politicians
who were prepared to accept the label; as many with opinions indistinguishable
from those who accepted it, hotly denounced it, this came to be even more of a
problem. There are few better examples of the cheapening of political analysis
in the mass media than the widespread use of this simplistic term.
The term was very largely, though not exclusively, applied toConservative
Partypoliticians, in part because many of them found it a useful rallying cry
and a powerful if blunt way of discrediting their opponents inside the party.
There had been a long history of Conservative doubts about the suitability of
European integration as a policy for the United Kingdom, although it was, of
course, a Conservative administration, that of Ted Heath (1970–74) that took
Britain into the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1972.
Throughout the years of the Conservative administrations of 1979–92, gov-
ernment policy waxed and waned over how close an integration the UK was
prepared to accept. The leader for most of that period, Margaret Thatcher,
objected to much of the EU’s development based on the dual beliefs that the
EU was not as wedded to the free market as she was, and important areas of
national decision-making autonomy were at risk. After Thatcher’s forced
resignation as prime minister, her successor, John Major, had to contend with
ever deepening and more acrimonious rifts in his party over Europe. It was at
this time that the label of Eurosceptic was coined. The main problem with the
term is that many of those who were so labelled were not simply sceptical about
the benefits of European integration—that could be a rational policy of caution
even for those ideologically wedded to ultimately high degrees of integration.
In truth, many of the Eurosceptics were out and out euro-loathers, unprepared
to accept anything more than a loose trading-bloc arrangement. However, it
has become politically impossible to actually oppose UK membership com-
pletely, except for those on the very far right of the party.
Eurosceptic