@article{2018:broad:ignoring_e,
title = {Ignoring Europe? Reassessing the British Labour Party’s Policy towards European Integration, 1951-60},
year = {2018},
note = {The 1950s were a turning point in British European policy during which
the country moved from passive bystander to prospective member of the
European Economic Community (EEC). Existing scholarship, though,
depicts the opposition Labour Party as choosing largely to ignore this
shift. This article by contrast shows that at various levels Labour
did systematically talk about the vexed question of Britain’s
European future. Indeed, a critical mass of the Party quickly
recognised the necessity of a closer relationship with the EEC,
supported membership of the Free Trade Area (FTA) as the best
institutional forum for this undertaking and, following its collapse,
sought with some energy to prevent the ensuing economic and political
division of Western Europe. In revealing Labour policy as more nuanced
and measured, the article aims ultimately to promote the 1950s as a
far more crucial component in the broader story of how the Party
grappled with closer cooperation among European states.},
journal = {JEIH Journal of European Integration History},
pages = {95--114},
author = {Broad, Matthew},
volume = {24},
number = {1}
}