Blair and the European Union

Abstract

The perception of British ‘awkwardness’ in European affairs can be explained in part by the antipathy of successive governments to supranational forms of integration, by a certain ‘style’ of negotiation which is a product of the European Union (EU) policy-making process within government, and by the failure to construct a supportive domestic consensus (Allen, 2005, p. 131–2). The aim of this chapter is to address each of these explanatory variables in turn, exploring the extent to which the Blair government has sought to challenge them and so define a new direction for British European policy. It does so by analysing and assessing Labour’s record in office under Blair across three core legacies, each of which corresponds to the three variables identified above: the policy legacy, structural legacy, and political legacy.