ABSTRACT
The negotiations on British membership lasted for 18 months, and concerned the position of sterling as an international reserve currency, Commonwealth trade, agriculture and fishing, and the British budgetary contribution. In October 1966 a meeting was held at Chequers on membership of the Community, by which point officials had produced a considerable range of documents examining the pros and cons of British entry. The exposure of the British economy to European competition would, it was believed, keep down inflation, producing an influx of foreign capital which would help to finance new investment and eventually reduce the balance of payments deficits. A key proposition is that this populist Eurosceptic discourse infected the British political culture and curtailed attempts to construct a more positive vision of Britain in the European Community. The left opposed membership, presenting it as a form of ‘narrow regional integration’ dominated by French nationalism and as a threat to British socialism and to the British nation.
