1. Ok, so I did a podcast with Dan Snow (thehistoryguy) where he was great and I rambled a bit (first ever podcast) about my Soviet Union thread.
Since it's out I thought I’d finish a story I don’t think I quite finished from the first negotiation, and then relate it to Brexit.
Since it's out I thought I’d finish a story I don’t think I quite finished from the first negotiation, and then relate it to Brexit.
2. To start with the suggestion that Monnet was secretive about the principle objective of the Common Market being about political union is laughable. Hansard records Henry Legge-Bourke referring to this and specifically citing a Monnet interview on Panorama in 1960. 
3. We can also find it referred to in the press. Here is an example in the Glasgow Herald asking if Britain favoured political union in 1961.
4. The UK didn’t want a Federal union, and we knew De Gaulle didn’t want one either, so the intention was we get involved to ensure it represented what we wanted. (We discuss this on the podcast)
5. When Harold Macmillan announced to parliament, in July 1961, our decision to formally apply for membership, he made it clear there were political and economic considerations.
6. But he made a distinction between the future political union and membership of the EEC, and this led to some scepticism…and some pretty disgusting British exceptionalism.
7. On the by November we see Harold Macmillan reiterating that there are political implications in the Treaty of Rome but no requirement to enter Political Union.
8. This was a position held until a debate on the 17th of July 1962, and at this point, if ‘political union’ was secret, then the people naming the debates didn’t get that message.
9. The Prime minister was asked if European discussions of political union were affecting our membership of the Common Market.
10. He maintained the position that joining the EEC did not necessarily mean being part of the political union.
11. Now, being an apparent “secret liberal elitist plot”, obviously nobody who had been involved in the discussions said anything…but they DID though…they DEFINITELY did that…!
12. In Germany, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer gave a television interview where he stated that Harold Macmillan’s comments on the 17th July were not consistent with a letter Macmillan had sent 4 days later.
13. Adenauer also suggested in that interview, as stated by Macmillan, there was the possibility of the UK joining the Common Market without being part of the political union. Macmillan had not been lying about that.
14. This intervention by Adenauer, however, led Macmillan to take the unprecedented step of publishing the letter.
15. And there was a possibility of confusion in the letter. Macmillan had written about joining wholeheartedly in the task. He may have meant helping the six, or he may have meant the UK taking part in the that task.
16. The government also added a statement which was 100% consistent with what had been said on the 17th of July, in the debate in question. (See also "Consent of Parliament" for any commitment...)
17. The British press took Macmillan’s side, and the front page of the Daily Express reporting that Macmillan slapped down Adenauer, which today, no doubt, would have been written as: "Macmillan SLAPS DOWN Adenauer".
18. This was front page news, so even if the people hadn’t been aware of the debates about political union in 1958, or had missed Monnet on Panorama, the cat was out of the bag in August 1962, and the Prime minister’s private correspondence about the cat was out of the bag too.
19. Relating this story to what is going on today, it should be obvious that if European leaders were well aware of the parliamentary debates during the negotiation in 1962, you can guarantee they know what has been going on in parliament this week (and all previous weeks).
20. I stand by the statement Macmillan was cagey. I’m not sure what he was trying to achieve, but based on something Charles de Gaulle said after the negotiations broke down, I think he wanted to cherry pick what the UK took part in, and this was part of the reason for rejection.
21. Which might also be something we need to worry about...
(You can hear more of this on the podcast) /End
(You can hear more of this on the podcast) /End
