The United Kingdom’s Role in the Community

Abstract

The United Kingdom’s role in the European Community is greater than would be indicated by a study of objective factors such as population, GDP per head and growth rates alone. In population size the United Kingdom is behind West Germany and Italy and only slightly ahead of France. The United Kingdom’s GDP in 1987 was the sixth largest in the world behind the USA, Japan, USSR, West Germany and France but its GDP per head was eighteenth in the world ranking. In the Community, Luxembourg, Denmark, West Germany, France, the Netherlands and, arguably, Italy, had higher GDPs per head than Britain. The United Kingdom’s growth rates, with rare exceptional periods, have also been lower. It is possible, if you choose your base date carefully, to argue that her growth rate in the 1980s has been the highest in Europe, but that involves a comparison from a very low starting point. Other measures such as the provision of health, welfare and social security services also put Britain fairly low in the league.