ABSTRACT
Margaret Thatcher's lack of knowledge about the intricacies of foreign affairs helps to explain why many senior Conservatives underestimated her in the early years. Since Thatcher's relationship with Europe was so fraught for much of the 1980s, it is worth remembering that Edward Heath – temperamentally much more pro-European than she – also had battles with Britain's new partners. The most contentious European Community issue during the middle years of Thatcher's period in office – and directly related to budgetary rows – was the Common Agricultural Policy(CAP). Many in Europe wanted to use the single market as a bridgehead not only to closer economic cooperation but to the creation of Europe as a fully federal state. Assessment of the success of Thatcher's European policy depends upon one's overall view of the European Community or European Union as it prematurely and pretentiously called itself from 1994.
