Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom (UK) is a very controversial issue and has been a significant element in British politics since the inception of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor to the European Union (EU). Euroscepticism Euro (disambiguation --> has become a general term for opposition to the process The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The European Community (EC is one of the Three pillars of the European Union (EU created under the Maastricht Treaty (1992 The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Eurosceptic views have not diminished following UK membership of the Union. However, their nature and bases have tended to change over the years.

Beyond party politics, most of the UK's mainstream magazines and newspapers – not only tabloids such as The Daily Mail, The Sun, the Daily Express and the News of the World, but also broadsheets such as The Daily Telegraph and The Times – regularly carry articles highly sceptical of EU laws and policies. A tabloid is a Newspaper industry term which refers to a smaller newspaper format per spread to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format The Sun is a Tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland with the highest circulation of any daily English-language The Daily Express is a conservative Middle-market British Tabloid Newspaper. The News of the World is a British Tabloid Newspaper published every Sunday Broadsheet is the largest of the various Newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 inches or more For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. Some pro-EU commentators argue that this critical coverage contributes greatly to Eurosceptic opinions in the population at large. Others contend that it simply reflects the views of the mass readerships concerned.

Contents 1 Euroscepticism in the political parties 2 Euroscepticism in the British press 3 Arguments for British EU withdrawal 4 See also 5 References

Euroscepticism in the political parties

Though it was the Conservative Party ("the Tories") that took the United Kingdom into the EU (then the EEC), many Tories subsequently became hostile to the EU as:

• the bloc steadily became more politically centralized;
• various Continental statist-interventionist policies and programmes became entrenched in the UK;
• British efforts to liberalise basic EU policies and programmes such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) failed. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. In the political tradition of some English-speaking countries, the term Tory has referred to a variety of political parties and Creeds since it was The Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP) is a system of European Union Agricultural subsidies and programmes

Conversely, much of the opposition to Britain’s EU membership used to come from Labour politicians and trade unionists fearful that bloc membership would impede socialism. However, many in the Labour party subsequently came to welcome the EU as a bulwark against such things as the liberalisation of employment laws and policies.

Although the (Conservative) British government of the time was, in principle, favourable to the creation of the EEC, it did not become a founding member. It initially believed that Britain would be better off trading with other Commonwealth countries in the English-speaking sphere of influence plus the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The word Anglosphere describes a concept of a group of Anglophone ( English -speaking nations which share historical political and cultural characteristics rooted The European Free Trade Association ( EFTA) is a European Trade bloc which was established on 3 May 1960 as an alternative for European states who were either The latter trade association was far less political and integrationist than the Community. However, after some years, trade with EEC countries ended up accounting for more of Britain's trade than with the EFTA. Britain therefore reconsidered its policy, moving closer to the EEC and opening accession negotiations in 1961.

French president Charles de Gaulle strongly resisted, arguing that the UK was closer to US policies than European ones, and would thus try to "sabotage" the community. Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle ( ( 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French General and statesman who led the Free French The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Such a fear was understandable, given the past declarations of prominent British politicians: for instance, Winston Churchill had declared to de Gaulle in 1944 that if he ever had to choose between the open sea and the continent, he would always choose the ocean; and if he had to choose between America and Europe, he would always choose the first. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 Consequently, France vetoed the UK's membership bid (as well as the Danish and Irish bids, which were due to the two countries' heavy reliance on British trade) in 1963. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

The Labour Party, then in opposition, spoke against the EEC. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Party leader Hugh Gaitskell once regarded the EEC as "the end of a thousand years of history". Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell ( 9 April 1906 &ndash 18 January 1963) was a British politician leader of the Labour Party from 1955 A second attempt was made in 1967, but it was again rejected by a French veto. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar.

When de Gaulle stepped down from power, UK membership prospects improved. Labour changed its traditionally hostile policy against the EEC and became more favourable. After the party came to power, Britain applied to join for a third time in 1969. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Finally, Britain joined the community in 1973. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar.

Despite the decision to join the EEC, scepticism about membership prompted the Labour government to hold a referendum in 1975 on the permanence in the community. The United Kingdom referendum of 1975 was a post-legislative Referendum held on 5 June 1975 in the whole of the United Kingdom over whether there was support for it The question on the paper was:

"Parliament has decided to consult the electorate on the question whether the UK should remain in the European Economic Community: Do you want the UK to remain in the EEC?"

British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 67. 2% of those voting, with a turnout of 64. 5%.

Some advocates of EEC membership had argued that the EEC would be "no more than a trade agreement", though the White Paper put before Parliament at the time also spoke of "political union" and "shared sovereignty". A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them It is therefore controversial whether the extent of political union in today's EU was mandated by the 1975 referendum.

As decades passed and European integration deepened, with successive treaties signed by governments, some Britons have felt betrayed by the government, and eurosceptic attitudes have become more intense. European integration is the process of political legal economic (and in some cases social and cultural integration of European states including some states that are partly in Europe

The debate between Eurosceptics and pro-Europeans is ongoing in British political parties whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain, the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservative Party, both have within them a broad spectrum of views concerning the European Union. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. However, the majority of Conservatives are typically eurosceptic whilst most Labour Party members are usually centrist on the issue. In Politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting Moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes

In the 1970s and the early 1980s the Labour Party was the more Eurosceptic of the two parties, having more anti-EEC MPs than the Conservatives. In 1975 Labour held a special conference on British membership and the party voted 2-to-1 for Britain to leave the EEC. ^[1] In 1979 the Labour manifesto declared that a Labour government would "oppose any move towards turning the Community into a federation" and in 1983 they favoured British withdrawal from the EEC. Under the leadership of Neil Kinnock after 1983, however, the Labour Party dropped their opposition to the EEC and instead favoured greater British integration into European Economic and Monetary Union. Neil Gordon Kinnock Baron Kinnock PC (born 28 March 1942 is a British Politician. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) In economics a Monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency amongst themselves

However, many commentators believe over-interest in the issue to be an important reason why the Conservative Party lost the General Election of 2001. Results |} Total votes cast 26368204 All parties with more than 500 votes shown They argue that the British electorate was more influenced by domestic issues than by European affairs. This is said to be illustrated by the poor performance of the breakaway Pro-Euro Conservative Party in the 1999 European elections, although there is little track record of success generally for breakaway parties in the United Kingdom. The Pro-Euro Conservative Party was a short-lived political party set up by John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly for the 1999 European Parliament Elections Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU

After the electoral defeat of the UK Conservatives in 2001, the issue of eurosceptism was important in the contest to elect a new party leader. The winner, Iain Duncan Smith, was seen as more eurosceptic than his predecessor and concern was expressed that his victory could result in an inflammation of the issue within the party. George Iain Duncan Smith, PC, MP, (born 9 April 1954 is a British politician

As opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith attempted to disaffiliate the British Conservative Members of the European Parliament from the federalist European People's Party Group. A Member of the European Parliament ( English abbreviation MEP) is a member of the European Union 's legislative body the European Parliament. The European People's Party (EPP is a Christian democratic and Liberal conservative European political party. As MEPs must maintain a pan-European alliance to retain parliamentary privileges, Duncan Smith sought the merger of Conservative MEPs into the eurosceptic Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) group. Union for Europe of the Nations is a political group of the European Parliament formed on 20 July 1999) Self-Defense of the Republic Conservative MEPs vetoed this move because of the presence within the UEN of representatives of neo-fascist parties who do not share similar domestic politics. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Union for Europe of the Nations is a political group of the European Parliament formed on 20 July 1999) Self-Defense of the Republic This page specifically pertains to fascism after World War II In 2004, Duncan Smith's successor, Michael Howard, emphasised that Conservative MEPs would remain in the EPP Group so as to maintain influence in the European Parliament. Michael Howard QC (born 7 July 1941 is a British Politician, a Conservative MP since the 1983 General Election for the constituency of The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU However Michael Howard's successor, David Cameron, has pledged to remove Conservative MEPs from the EPP Group as soon as possible. David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966 is a British Politician and the current leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of Her Majesty's

The governing Labour Party is also split into eurosceptic and pro-European factions. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Historically, the party tended towards euroscepticism, but under Tony Blair its policies became generally pro-European. Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to Pro-European is a subjective term applied to a person who supports the idea of European unification (mainly through the European Union (EU and generally supports However, a significant minority of Labour MPs have formed the Labour Against the Euro group, opposing British membership of the single currency. The group has support from minority parts of the Trade Union movement, while the majority of trade unions remain staunchly pro-EU. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming

The UK's third-largest parliamentary party, the Liberal Democrats, is strongly pro-EU, but is also open about the EU's flaws, and advocates institutional reform and a greater role for national parliaments in scrutinising EU legislation. The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal Political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by merging the

The United Kingdom Independence Party, which advocates the UK's complete withdrawal from the European Union, received 16% of the vote and gained 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Election. The United Kingdom Independence Party (commonly known as UKIP, ˈjuːkɪp Elections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according The party was subsequently weakened by a leadership struggle and the defection of prominent member Robert Kilroy-Silk. Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born 19 May 1942) is an English Politician, independent Member of the European Parliament and a former In the following General Election of 2005 neither UKIP nor Kilroy-Silk's new Veritas party succeeded in gaining a substantial percentage of the vote, or any seats in parliament. Results Overview For events leading up to the date of the election see article Pre-election day events of the United Kingdom general Veritas ( Latin: "Truth" is a Political party in the United Kingdom, formed in February 2005 by politician-celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk

The Scottish National Party has tended to be pro-European since the 1980s, however, for some the example of Norway has encouraged a Eurosceptic Scottish independence movement. The Scottish National Party (SNP (Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba Scottis Naitional Pairtie is a Centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional This has found some separate expression in the Free Scotland Party, founded by a formerly prominent member of the SNP, Brian Nugent. As the SNP's heartlands tend to be in fishing and farming areas of Scotland, they have been seen as a real threat to the pro-European SNP. However, this has not yet emerged. Polls show there is some Euroscepticism in Scotland, but neither UKIP nor the Conservatives are very powerful there.

Euroscepticism in the British press

In the UK, many newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Rupert Murdoch newspapers (The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times), are eurosceptic along with the broadsheet Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and have published many stories highly critical of the European Union and its policies. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format is gay Bold text' Keith Rupert Murdoch', AC, KCSG (born Melbourne, March 11 1931 usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-American The Sun is a Tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland with the highest circulation of any daily English-language The News of the World is a British Tabloid Newspaper published every Sunday The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. The Sunday Times is a Sunday Broadsheet Newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. The Sunday Telegraph is a British Broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1961 The accuracy or otherwise of these stories is hotly disputed, and in some cases the actions of international bodies with no connection to the EU have been attributed to it. Examples include headlines such as "Ludicrous EU officials ready to ban yogurt", The Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2003, where there were simply proposals on standard labelling and these proposals were initiated by the UK government, and reports in several UK papers in March 2000 that the EU planned to 'reduce' UK condoms to European sizes, when it was in fact the European Standardisation Committee (CEN) which proposed labelling changes, an organisation with no connection to the EU. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. In response, the European Commission has created a website dedicated to explaining its point of view. The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. ^[2]

Pro-Europeans allege that some coverage of the European Union by UK tabloids is xenophobic, particularly through what they sometimes regard as conscious attempts to influence British politics by denigrating foreign countries (Such as Daily Express's article about renaming Waterloo Station in London, as it could offend the French). A tabloid is a Newspaper industry term which refers to a smaller newspaper format per spread to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest Xenophobia is an intense and/or irrational dislike and sometimes fear of people from other countries The Daily Express is a conservative Middle-market British Tabloid Newspaper. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. ^[3] Many eurosceptics reject this allegation as a slur. Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, once said to Jose Manuel Barroso "See what I have to put up with?" regarding the British Press' unfavourable cover of the EU Budget 2007-2013. Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to

The daily newspaper of the hard-left, The Morning Star (connected to the Communist Party of Britain) takes an internationalist, Marxist eurosceptic position. For other uses see Morning Star. The Morning Star is a left-wing, British daily Newspaper, set in a The Communist Party of Britain, which claimed to have 941 members at its 2008 Congress is the largest Communist party in the United Kingdom. Under the Editorship of Mark Seddon, Tribune, the journal of the Labour Movement, tended to give space to eurosceptic contributors, including controversially, Marc Glendening of the Democracy Movement. This position was defended by other centre-left eurosceptics who also spoke on platforms with the Democracy Movement once the Democracy Movement had successfully given direct assurances that it was not xenophobic, racist or sympathetic to extreme nationalists.

Arguments for British EU withdrawal

The strongest eurosceptics – both inside and outside of the political parties – advocate British withdrawal from the EU altogether. ^[4][5] Supporters of withdrawal today regard the EU as:

• lacking in democratic process, overburdened with bureaucracy, and threatening to national sovereignty;

• a barrier to business and market deregulation, fiscal reform, and global free trade; and

• generally economically costly and dysfunctional.

Far from being “Little Englanders”, most opponents of EU membership nowadays are actually globally internationalist. They are against political and bureaucratic centralization but in favour of pan-European policies such as free trade. Political and bureaucratic centralization is opposed because it is allegedly undemocratic, and on more general liberal grounds. Many critics of the EU including MPs maintain that the British judicial system is more liberal than that of Continental European countries – and thus trends towards harmonisation in this field are necessarily regressive. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Basic rights and freedoms under the rule of law would be undermined in Britain as a result of the adoption of Continental civil law systems that did not provide comparable presumption of innocence and other protections of liberty such as habeas corpus. Civil law or Romano-Germanic law or Continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. The presumption of innocence being innocent until proven guilty is a legal Right that the Accused in Criminal trials has Liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force Habeas corpus (ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔɹpəs ( Latin: command that you have the body is the name of a legal action or Writ, through which a person can seek relief

On the economic side, supporters of EU withdrawal argue that as one of the largest economies in the world^[6] and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the United Kingdom there is no possibility of the UK being commercially isolated or otherwise suffering outside the EU.

They argue that the economic costs of EU membership to Britain have always exceeded the benefits, and that further bloc enlargement (etc. ) will not alter this in the future. They dismiss the argument that political economic unification brings benefits simply because of larger scale. There is no correlation between the size of political economic entities and their success. Around the world, there are many democratic and prosperous small countries and many unstable, undemocratic, and impoverished large ones. It is not just the European Union that is an anachronistic attempt to politically and economically unite a whole continent. Centralised blocs in general are becoming outdated in a world where globalisation and localism are increasingly the main competing models or preferred alternatives. A trade bloc is a large Free trade area formed by one or more Tax tariff and trade agreements Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones

Despite geographical proximity, most Britons have stronger cultural and social affinities with the Anglosphere or the US and the Commonwealth of Nations than with Europe. The word Anglosphere describes a concept of a group of Anglophone ( English -speaking nations which share historical political and cultural characteristics rooted

Recent UK polls show that the majority of the British electorate is opposed to UK membership in the euro. Please update other articles as well to avoid contradiction within Wikipedia e The country is divided over whether to remain in the EU. In a recent poll, only 39% of the British population as a whole viewed membership positively. ^[7] However, attitudes vary across the constituent countries of the UK.

See also

• Factortame case
• Euroscepticism

References

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic