ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the press coverage from the narrower perspective of just four specific political events that occurred during the British presidency of the European Union. The first two events include: the announcement by 11 member states that they had successfully fulfilled the Maastricht criteria for entry to EMU and Tony Blair’s speech to the French National Assembly. The next two events also include: the adoption by the Blair government of the European Working Time Directive and the procedures implemented on 1 May 1998, leading to the eventual launch of the euro. Britain will inevitably suffer in terms of the influence it has on the crucial stage of European development as the result of its voluntary self-exclusion. An ideological feature which characterises the ‘European’ discourse of the British press is the representation of the European Union as a separate and unwelcomed interventionist superstate.
