Anti-Market forces
From Mr Roger Broad Sir: Frederick Forsyth (Politics, 18 August) is wildly inaccurate in supposing that the June 1975 referendum on remaining in the European Community 'closed the issue down' in the Labour party. Three months later Clive Jenkins, one of the most determined anti-marketeers, showed that he did not take yes for an answer; three years later the party conference voted for resolutions demanding amendment of the 1972 European Communities Act in terms that meant withdrawal in all but name. In 1983 the party went into the general election on a get-out policy. This policy did not prove the great vote-winner imagined (though there were other good reasons why Labour did not win the election). So a referendum to paste over internal party disputes was a failure, as it could well prove to be again whether for Blair or Duncan Smith/Clarke.
Roger Broad
London W2
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