WetAugust …… “utter nonsence” eh, methinks you are starting to believe your own ‘3 parties sold us down the river’ Ukip propaganda
Firstly re Heath and the The Treaty of Rome, while few could argue that Heath was not a bit of a numpty, you do know that it was signed in1957, somewhat before his time?
The fact of the matter was, whilst whatever THE OTHER 6 (?) EEC MEMBERS back then envisaged politically in the decades ahead, the UK back then (especially a Conservative government) has NEVER been on board our membership of a Europe drifting towards a political Federal State, as the link below points out – and note Heath was Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974, and the date of the EEC enlargement within that link.
www.historiasiglo20.org/europe/traroma.htm
"The "British problem" and the enlargement of the EEC in 1973"
"The absence of the United Kingdom constituted the main political problem that the EEC had to face in its early years. The British government refused to participate for different reasons:"
• The importance of its commercial, political and, even, sentimental bonds with its colonies and former colonies, most of them integrated in the Commonwealth;
• Its refusal to join a customs union. The British government defended the establishment of a free trade area, in which the internal customs rights were abolished, but national governments would maintain their competences of enacting their own tariffs with regard to third countries;
• The fact that Britain was totally opposed to embarking on a project whose long-term aim was to surrender the sovereignty of national states to supranational European institutions. In other words, the British were, and many of them still remain, very far from the objective of an European political union.
"After negotiations to integrate Britain in the EEC broke down, the British government proposed the foundation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Austria and Portugal joined to that new organisation."
"It fell far short of any project of political integration, and constituted a mere free trade area."
"Shortly, Britain realized its mistake. Whereas the EEC witnessed a spectacular economic growth, with growth rates in the sixties clearly superior to those in America, Great Britain continued its downward trend in relation to the Continent."
However as the last paragraph eludes to, don’t forget that during the 1970’s the UK was a manufacturing basket case, as it fell as a percentage of our economy from around 29% in 1970, and around 22% when Thatcher was elected in 1979.
The UK during that time had inflation and interest rates around 20%, terrible industrial relations as trade unions claimed, walked out via strikes, and received similar pay rises = an upward inflation and incomes spiral, which together with a Labour 50% Corporate Tax on any unlikely profits companies made, was to destroy most of our medium to heavy manufacturing.
My point being, as the likes of Japan, Germany and other European competitors were kicking our non competitive arse and our future was looking bleaker, POLITICALLY & ECONOMICALLY, we were desperate to join a successful trading block – and while the UK were often rubbish when other EEC looked to trade concessions with us - until Blair came in at least, the UK had no interest in joining a Federal State.
As I’ve said, the ‘small state, free markets, low taxes’ Conservative DNA would never want to join a bureaucratic Federal monolith called the EU, and of course as you’ve said, Cameron is NEVER likely to get the EU reforms we need, SO WE MUST HAVE THE OPTION TO LEAVE the EU.
The ONLY option to leave will be via a 2017 UK referendum on the EU, if the Conservatives get a parliamentary majority in 2015.
As the Conservative need several % of the vote more than Labour to get a majority of 1-seat, the major problem is Ukip’s 11% plus of a General Election vote – so Farage’s UKIP has to decide if he and his party have anti EU conviction and principals of what is right for the UK, or just wants Westminster seats to fool around in.
As Ukip have no domestic policies for longer than a year, there is no point on a Conservative deal with UKIP and what domestic policies could you horse trade with – so if Ukip are true to their 20-year crusade to get the UK out of the EU, they will do the honourable thing and stand down in constituencies where they won’t WIN a seat, but let Labour in instead.