Robert Dewey - British national identity and opposition to membership of Europe, 1961–63

British national identity and opposition to membership of Europe, 196163

The anti-Marketeers

Robert F. Dewey, Jr.

Copyright Robert F. Dewey, Jr. 2009

The right of Robert F. Dewey, Jr. to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7190 7871 2

First published 2009

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Typeset in Warnock Pro
by R. J. Footring Ltd, Derby, UK
Printed in Great Britain
by the MPG Books Group

Dr E. H. H. Green of Magdalen College, Oxford, was my supervisor, mentor and friend. He died in September 2006, long before this book was published. But the project would not exist without Ewen. From the gestation of the original idea through to the completion of a rough draft of the manuscript he pushed me to address the topic with greater breadth and complexity. He was an unfailing source of inspiration, through the excellence of his own work, his qualities as a teacher and by virtue of the bravery and dignity he demonstrated in confronting lifes hardships. It was my great honour to be Ewens first DPhil student there should have been many more.

Researching this topic raised an abundance of challenges. The most daunting of these included the necessity of consulting every copy of the Daily Express between 1961 and 1963 on microfilm at the National Newspaper Library. This entailed innumerable and interminable rush-hour journeys on the coach between Oxford and Victoria and travel on the Northern Line between central London and Colindale. I cannot in good conscience recommend this exercise to anyone, but the help provided by the staff at Colindale made this bearable and worthwhile. My research also benefited from the skilful assistance of the librarians, archivists and staffs at the British Library, the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the House of Lords Records Office, the Labour History Archive and Study Centre in Manchester, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at Kings College, London, the Imperial War Museum, the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, the University of Birmingham Library, University College London Library, and the New York Public Library. Every effort has been made to secure copyright for quotations included in the book and I am grateful to the various archivists and trustees who provided permissions. I must also thank the entire team at Manchester University Press for their great efficiency and care in shepherding this book to publication.

I benefited from contact with other historians and political scientists encountered during the course of research and at conferences, including Peter Catterall, George Wilkes, Stuart Ward, Nick Crowson and Oliver Daddow, who shared insights on a host of topics relating to the first application debate and Euroscepticism in general. In this regard the observations of Ted Bromund, in particular, were invaluable. I must also thank Piers Ludlow and Nick Owen, who, as examiners, provided essential comments on the thesis version. A postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the European Commission at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University provided a welcome oasis for further reflection and I am therefore grateful to Margaret Herman, Director of its Global Affairs Center, Mitchell Orenstein, Director of the Center for European Studies, and especially Craig Parsons, former Director of the European Union Center. I must also thank original participants in the first application debate for their willingness to submit to lengthy interviews or provide written correspondence and I was most obliged to Lord Jenkins and Michael Foot, not only for their time and recollections, but for their enthusiastic support of the project.

The value of friendship, and my inordinate good fortune in that respect, was never more apparent than in the pursuit of this project. Dave Gavaghan and Elaine Welsh, Tim and Julie Fish, Kate Charles and Keith Rose, the Bennetts, the Tupous, Tom Evans, Sebastian Rosato and Clare Brant were incomparable hosts at various stages of research. So too were David Hagan and John McCarthy, who cast aside all conventional wisdom regarding houseguests by providing accommodation in spare corners of their West Kensington flats for months on end. Other crucial supporters included Sir Bryan Cartledge and Professor Paul Slack, his successor as Principal at Linacre College, Oxford. I also appreciate the support provided by my colleagues in the History Department at DePauw University. And I am, as always, grateful to my friends at Colgate University, including Gloria Vanderneut and John LeFevre, and will forever be indebted to Professor Jerry Balmuth of the Philosophy Department for adopting me as one of his undergraduate advisees and for being the most resolute champion of the life of the mind.

Finally, and most importantly, this book is dedicated to my mother and father, my sister Helen, my wife Susan and son Gabriel. That gesture is an inadequate measure of the love I feel for them and my immense appreciation for all the sacrifices they have made on my behalf. My parents and sisters tolerance for and unyielding belief in the importance of this lengthy process were steadfast and always encouraging. Susan provided morale boosts and gentle pushes when they were needed and wisdom derived from her own scholarly endeavours and publishing experiences. Gabriel simply lit up my world with his little smile. In countless ways their love made it possible for me to pursue a dream and, for that reason, the fruits of this labour are as much theirs as mine.