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Opposition to the European Union in the UK: The Dilemma of Public Opinion and Party Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Simon Usherwood
Simon Usherwood*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Extract

The Main Aim Of This Article Is To Understand Some Of The processes at work in the management of European policy formation by political parties in the UK. More specifically, it attempts to apply and extend the model proposed by Aspinwall of institutional constraints on that policy management. Whereas Aspinwall limits the application of his model to parliamentary coalitions and effective power, we push the model further by describing and analysing its interaction with other features of the political landscape, most notably the generally low level of interest in European affairs on the part of the British public.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2002 , pp. 211 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2002

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References

1 Thanks are due to Stephen George, Mark Aspinwall, Paul Taggart, Jo Waller and those at the presentation of this paper at the Political Studies Association 51st Conference, Manchester, 10–12 April 2001. Any inaccuracies which remain should be attributed to the author.

2 See Aspinwall, M., ‘Structuring Europe: Powersharing Institutions and British Preferences on European Integration’, Political Studies, 48:3 (2000), pp. 415–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Useful starting points on this topic include George, S., An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998 Google Scholar; and Young, H., This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair, Woodstock, Overlook Press, 1998.Google Scholar

4 M. Aspinwall, op. cit., p. 416.

5 Ibid., pp. 428–30.

6 S. Hix and C. Lord, Political Parties in the EU, London, Macmillan; 1997; Taggart, P., ‘A Touchstone of Dissent: Euroscepticism in Contemporary Western European Party Systems’, European Journal of Political Research, 33:3 (1998), pp. 363–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 M. Aspinwall, op. cit., p. 431. Also see Figure 4.

8 Ibid.

9 Finer, S. E., Adversary Politics and Electoral Reform, London, Anthony Wigram, 1975.Google Scholar

10 M. Aspinwall, op. cit., p. 432.

11 Ibid., p. 433.

12 Norton, P., ‘The United Kingdom: Political Conflict, Parliamentary Scrutiny’, in Norton, P. (éd.), National Parliaments and the European Union, London, Frank Cass, 1996, pp. 92–109 Google Scholar, discusses parliamentary powers and their relation to the government.

13 Baker, D., Gamble, A. and Ludlam, S., ‘1846 … 1906 … 1996? Conservatives and European Integration’, Political Quarterly, 64:4 (1993), pp. 420–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Butler, D. and Kitzinger, U., The 1975 Referendum, London, Macmillan, 1976 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, is the best account of this event.

15 See M. Aspinwall, op. cit., p. 434, Butler and Kitzinger, op. cit., and Ludlow, P., The Making of the European Monetary System, London, Butterworth, 1982 Google Scholar, for discussions of these events.

16 The government guillotined the debating time, to little protest. See H. Young, This Blessed Plot, pp. 334–5, for more details.

17 See Sowemimo, M., ‘The Conservative Party and European Integration 1988–95’, Party Politics, 2:1 (1996), pp. 77–97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and H. Young, op. cit.

18 The relevant question reads: ‘Generally speaking, do you think (our country’s) membership of the European Union is … (a good thing/a bad thing/neither good nor bad)?’. Full details are available at Eurobarometer’s website: http://www.europaeu.int/comm/dglO/epo/polls.html

19 A summary table is available at http://www.mori.com/polls/trends/issues.shtml. The question reads: ‘What do you see as the most important issue facing Britain today? What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today?’. Answers are unprompted and combined to form Table 1.

20 As Rasmussen notes, for all of Thatcher’s clear opposition in the late-1980s, there was no transmission of those views to the general public. Rasmussen, J., ‘What Kind of Vision is That? British Public Attitudes towards the European Community During the Thatcher Era’, British Journal of Political Science, 27:1 (1997), pp. 111–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Clearly voter intention is not just about personal preferences, most notably with the rise of tactical voting, as typified by the 1997 General Election.

22 See Evans, G., ‘Euroscepticism and Conservative Electoral Support: How an Asset Became a Liability’, British Journal of Political Science, 28:4 (1998), pp. 573–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 See D. Butler and U. Kitzinger, op. cit., pp. 97–115, for a detailed account of the No campaign and its constituent elements.

24 Baker, D., Gamble, A. and Ludlam, S., ‘The Parliamentary Siege of Maastricht 1993: Conservative Divisions and British Ratification’, Parliamentary Affairs, 47:1 (1994) pp. 37–60.Google Scholar

25 Interview with UKIP secretariat official, Sept. 1999; interview with Business for Sterling secretariat official, Sept. 1999. The former described contact as ‘passive’. Also see http://www.bfors.com/ and http://www.new-europe.co.uk.

26 This is true even for groups with roots within parties, such as the European Foundation (http://www.e-f.org.uk/).

27 For Corpus Juris see http://www.keele.ac.uk/socs/ks40/art.htrn for various links. For regionalization see The Freedom Association’s newsletter from October 1999 http://www.tfa.net/ft/bypass.htm or a piece from the UKIP’s Comment section at http://www.ukip.org/html/bodycommentl2.html.

28 M. Aspinwall, op. cit., p. 431.

29 See Sked, A., ‘Sceptics Who Betray Britain’, The Spectator, 10 02 2001 Google Scholar, for more on UKIP. The pro-European Britain in Europe has been keen to point out the inconsistencies of New Europe and Business for Sterling’s positions (http://www.britainineurope.org/).

30 G. Evans, ‘Euroscepticism and Conservative Electoral Support’, op. cit., shows how even though the Conservatives had the aggregate position on Europe closest to the public’s, on an individual level those who were pro-European saw the party as anti-European, while anti-Europeans thought it to be pro-European. This effectively negated any benefit of its drift towards Euro-scepticism.