Abstract:
The majority of those who voted in the recent EU referendum favoured leaving the EU. This was not the first British referendum on membership. An earlier referendum in 1975 came out with a very different result. Close to 70 percent voted to remain. In some ways the 1975 referendum campaign was quite different from 2016. The UK had only joined what was then styled the European Economic Community, more colloquially known as the Common Market, two years before. By the middle of the 1970s the political consensus which dominated public debate, prior to the Thatcher government, had left a country short on self-confidence and economically weak. Against such a background it is perhaps understandable that EEC membership was seen as attractive option. There were similarities too. As in 2015, most of the political establishment supported remaining a member of the EEC. The opposition to membership was led by some maverick figures including Tony Benn and Enoch Powell. The governing party was divided. Many of the arguments made in 1975 were used again in 2016. This paper will reflect on the 1975 referendum as a historical event and draw some parallels with 2016.
