Vancouver Province
for November 26, 1999

London, November 26.

It’s always interesting to look back at Canada from London, once the center of the western version of the universe and still one of its most important cities. My first clue as to how important we are usually comes from a taxi driver who, on determining that I’m not from America, as the United States is always called, asks if Vancouver is an ice free port. Deeper students of our affairs will mumble the word "Quebec" thinking that this somehow indicates their deep understanding of Canadian domestic difficulties. Invariably there follows a story of how they know Canada well because they visited Toronto a couple of summers back. Having said that about British myopia in viewing Canada, I wonder if they themselves understand what’s happening to them.

Britain is nearing the end – which may come in a hundred years or so – of a long historical continuum which goes back to the Conquest in 1066, and beyond. Ever since Britain physically separated from the continent there has been this ongoing struggle to determine just what Britain is. Is she part of the continent or, as Churchill saw it, an integral part, if not capital, of the great English Speaking Peoples.

Through the centuries Britain has led this double life – it’s part of Europe but it’s not European. The traditional policy was to make allies on the continent sufficient to offset its largest power. (The use of the word "continent" by British policymakers says a lot.) Indeed wars were often fought for stated reasons which, when shorn of the spin doctoring of the day, simply said that Spain, or France or, in this century Germany had gotten too big for its britches.

This has been reflected in how Europe proper viewed Britain. She was sort of European but not quite. Understanding this double life is critical to comprehending what is going on in Britain today. Hugo Young, one of Britain’s foremost political commentators, has written a fascinating book called, with a great pun on Shakespeare’s apt description of England in Richard II, This Blessed Plot. It’s the story of Britain’s flirtation with and now near marriage to Europe in the guise of the European Community.

Young starts with Churchill’s famous 1946 Zurich speech when, after telling his audience that he would "astonish" them, spoke of a United States of Europe. Ironically, Churchill is often seen as the father of Britain’s involvement in a European Common market while in fact, if one reads this speech with care, it’s clear he is speaking of Europe without Britain whom he saw as committed to the great Anglo-American community.

When Charles DeGaulle vetoed Britain’s first application to join the Common Market he was vilified as ungrateful to his wartime ally and painted as a stubborn old fart who petulantly reflected the ancient French distrust of "perfidious Albion". In fact, whatever he may have said, DeGaulle rightly perceived the UK as still too committed to the United States and the Commonwealth to make the commitment necessary to join Europe.

What’s especially fascinating about Young’s book is the extraordinarily deep rift the notion of the Common Market caused throughout all British society. Both major political parties were, and still are, divided on the issue and, in the case of the Tories, perhaps fatally so. Some politicians, like Harold Macmillan, flip flopped on the issue for their entire post war careers. Perhaps the only leader to remain steadfast to the notion of Britain in a united Europe is Edward Heath and one notes that he was a one term wonder replaced by Margaret Thatcher who, while never denouncing the Community, only kept the UK’s commitments with tardiness and reluctance.

Politics in the last five years has been all about the European Community though the term is scarcely ever mentioned. It’s true that John Major ostensibly got thrashed in 1997 because his Tories had been around too long and one too many ministers had been caught in the wrong boudoir. Yet his biggest problem was the question of Europe. His party was hopelessly divided and, to the great discomfort of William Hague, their present leader, still is. Indeed Tony Blair, for all his muted enthusiasm for the EC, is still none too eager to embrace the common currency