Decisive pointer
Almost unnoticed in the welter of postelection activity was the decision of the Government not to go ahead with — indeed to veto any progress on — discussions towards the creation of a European economic and monetary union. The union was the most important of all the steps envisaged by the European ideologists, and by Mr Heath in particular, on the way to subsuming national independence in a continental artefact. It was never, it need hardly be said, discussed in Parliament, nor would Mr Heath have dared to present it for the scrutiny of British legislators. It was, rather, a private agreement arrived at in Paris among heads of governments, the majority of whom have since ceased to hold office. No better evidence of the serious intention of the latest Wilson Government to observe its commitment to renegotiate the Treaty, and to refuse to accept any derogation of British sovereignty, could have been offered. The worst excesses of the advancing tide of so-called Europeanism have been halted by this Government, and we look forward with confidence to the conclusion of the battle in next year's referendum.
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