The Common Market: The Case Against (Paperfronts) (Paperback)

Powell had a clear vision of the consequences of EEC membership, quickly debunking the notion that the EEC was merely a Common Market or customs union, and arguing that the EEC a new nation state whose institutions intended to control all aspects of political life. Foreseeing the introduction of a common currency Powell states that a common currency may sound like a technicality, but is not. "A common currency means a common economic policy". Reminding his audience of the trials of the 1960's exchange rates and inflation Powell speculates that under a common currency there would have to have been "a common squeeze and a common freeze, a common prices and incomes policy, a common use of taxation to influence the value of money, a common inflation and common policy on unemployment" - all implemented across the EEC. There would therefore have to be a common government "for what is government about at all if it is not about policies such as these?". This is a timely reminder that the value of money is not effected only by interest rates.

Powell provides economic and political arguments against EEC membership. He believed Britain would gain greater trade benefits overall negotiating bilaterally outside the EEC. Politically, he argued that political unity was incompatible with national independence, that Britain would not gain an enhanced influence in international affairs as the EEC did not speak with one voice, and that the EEC could only secure peace in Europe if it resulted in the complete disappearance of nation states. On defence he points out that the military advantages of size are only relevant if the military objective is conquest - there is no evidence that a large country can defend itself any better than a small country.

In addition Powell argued that Britain should not join the EEC without the full-hearted consent of the British Parliament and its people, and that such consent did not exist.

With a vision so clear, inevitably Powell got some predictions plain wrong. At a speech in Frankfurt, for example, he stated that EEC membership precluded reunification of East and West Germany.

Modern Eurosceptics argue that the British political elite has hidden the long term consequences of the successive European Treaties from the British electorate and continues so to do. This collection shows that the Eurosceptic case was accurately and powerfully made prior to EEC membership. By the time these speeches were made, however, Powell's speeches on immigration had already made him a pariah isolated from party politics. As so often with the man, the reader must ask "what might have been?", if Powell had argued the Eurosceptic case from the heart of the Conservative Party.