This blessed plot. Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair

This blessed plot. Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair:
The spectre of Europe has haunted British politics since the end of the Second World War and Britain's troubled relationship with the European Union is the most fiery political question of our time. With the establishment of the single currency, Britain again finds itself tormented - and its political parties divided - by the issue that has loomed unanswered for more than fifty years: is Britain a European country? For many in the UK, membership of the European Union is seen as proof of Britain's failed independence.

In 'This blessed plot' Hugo Young, political columnist with The Guardian, has written an insider's history of Britain and the European Community, bringing to his account a wealth of new material and the insight gained from a mass of interviews with the principal participants. Each phase of the history is built around the role and record of a single leading player in the drama, starting with Churchill, the false prophet of what Europe would become, and concluding with Tony Blair, the first unambiguously pro-Europe prime minister to be elected since Britain joined the Common Market in 1973. Others featuring in the account are Ernest Bevin, Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath, Roy Jenkins, Margaret Thatcher and William Cash. He concludes that high political misjudgement is a thread running throughout the history of Britain's relations with the EU.

Young, Hugo
This blessed plot. Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair
Macmillan, 1998
ISBN: 0-333-57992-5
Price: £20.00