THE MACMILLAN GOVERNMENT AND EUROPE The Macmillan Government and Europe A Study in the Process of Policy Development Jacqueline Tratt flfl as First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-333-66238-5 m First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN0-312-16369-X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tratt, Jacqueline, 1946- The Macmillan government and Europe : a study in the process of policy development / Jacqueline Tratt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-312-16369-X (cloth) 1. Macmillan, Harold, 1894-1986. 2. Great Britain—Politics and government— 1945-1964. 3. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Europe. 4. Europe—Foreign relations—Great Britain. 5. Great Britain- -Foreign relations—1945- I. Title. DA566.9.M33T73 1996 327.4104—dc20 96-23688 C1P © Jacqueline Tratt 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 Printed in Great Britain by The Ipswich Book Company Ltd Ipswich, Suffolk In politics, all situations are exceptional situations; those who write about them at the time rarely understand their complexity; those who handle them are, because human, fallible and, because politi cal animals, neither free nor unfettered in their choice of action. (L.C.B. Seaman, Victorian England, 1973) Contents Preface ix A ckn owledgemen ts xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 No Easy Solution 11 2 Finding a Way Forward 30 3 EFTA: The Least Bad Option 41 4 'What is it we want?' 55 5 Dissonance and Drift 71 6 A Momentous Plan 85 7 Pressure, Politics and Persuasion 102 8 The Cabinet Says 'No' 116 9 At Home and Abroad 128 10 In the Departments 140 11 Exercises in Power Broking 153 12 Back to the Cabinet 168 Conclusion 188 Afterword 202 vn viii Contents Appendix I Some Cabinet Ministers, 1958-61 204 Appendix II Some Senior Civil Servants, 1958-61 205 Appendix III Cabinet Committees Concerned with Britain's Trading Relationship with Europe 207 Notes 208 Bibliography 229 Index 232 Preface At a time when the political process in Britain has come under critical scrutiny, it is tempting to hark back to an age of political rectitude and stability - when policies were for mulated through recourse to the proper machinery of govern ment; when ideas were thrashed out in cabinet and when the power of decision rested, ultimately, with the people. There never was such a time, and if there was, the Macmillan premiership was not it. This is a study of democratic government under pressure. Then, as now, it was the issue of Britain's relationship with Europe that provided a major source of frustration, disillu sion, conflict and compromise. Then, as now, a Conserva tive government was confronted with a challenge that had the potential for splitting not only the cabinet but also the party itself. Although there have been several studies relating to how the Macmillan government handled the European issue, none has addressed the question from the perspective of the key players themselves. Because this work relies heavily upon recently released documents, together with interviews with some of the officials involved, it offers a new way of looking at the machinery of government as well as pointing up some inevitable flaws of an essentially unplanned democratic system. This work adds to our knowledge in two important ways. First, it highlights the tendency for error among able of1 ficials and politicians faced with an apparently imponder able dilemma. Secondly, it illustrates their proneness to machination and dissimulation, which arises, it transpires, not out of an innate tendency to perfidy or dishonesty but out of the intractable contradiction between the democratic process and the obligation on democratic governments to work towards (their interpretation of) the long-term national good - even while incurring short-term political and econ omic costs. The work differs from previous studies in respect of both sources and method. With regard to sources, the wealth of ix