ABSTRACT
This chapter examines British attitudes and policy towards the project and course of European unity. British endeavours to build influence while remaining distant to particular initiatives supported on the continent entailed special disadvantages. Displays of 'Britain versus everybody else' or opting out ensured Britain of serving as a useful 'negative integration factor'. Europe would come to resemble a 'German-style' federation wherein German influence predominated. 'Sovereignty of the crown-in-parliament' and preservation of unanimity in critical European Union voting procedures is thus vital to political independence and essential elements of 'Britishness'. Cross-cutting axes of members opinions on more or less government intervention domestically and sovereignty-interdependence regarding Europe placed the Conservative party in several ideological quarters. Like Germany and France, the concept of a coherent national British identity has been under challenge. As the Conservatives conducted their own internecine warfare the British Labour Party presented no clear policy on the extent to which it would enmesh the UK.
