Britain and Europe

Abstract

It has taken a long time for British politics to become ‘Europeanised’, in the terms that have for a long time been recognised in most of the other member states of the European Community (EC). For some ten years after British accession to the EC on 1 January 1973 the characteristic profile of British political debate remained locked in the conditional mood, that is to say focused still on the underlying question of whether membership itself was the appropriate policy for any British government to pursue.