Critics
of the European Union will remember with considerable affection a
famous parliamentary performance in which — with an emphatic “No! No!
No!” — Margaret Thatcher roundly rejected the prospect of further
European integration. “What is the point,” she asked the assembled House
of Commons, “in trying to get elected to Parliament only to hand over
your sterling and the powers of this house to Europe?” This is a
familiar refrain of Euroskeptics — as those who would defend the
principle of national sovereignty against foreign usurpation are
curiously described — and one that is particularly salient now that the
European edifice is creaking and moaning, as students of history always
knew that it would. For the support of such a formidable character, all
enemies of the European project should be grateful.
Yet we should take care not to be so grateful that we rewrite history
and transform Mrs. Thatcher into something that she was not. By the end
of her premiership, she had found her voice on the question of Europe.
(And what a voice.) She correctly predicted from the outset the
unviability of the single European currency and was wholly vindicated in
her opposition to British entry into the European Exchange Rate
Mechanism. But nobody is perfect, and it is only fair to acknowledge
that she did not always hold the strong views on Britain’s political
involvement with Europe for which she has most recently become
acclaimed.Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/310219/how-thatcher-came-be-euroskeptic-charles-c-w-cooke
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