A sadder, wiser referendum

In June 1975, I was given the heavy responsibility of writing the Telegraph’s ‘light’ op-ed on the conduct of the first Euro-referendum campaign, which duly appeared on the day of the vote. My theme was that it had been the nicest possible stitch-up.

‘From the establishment and the respectable anti-establishment, from the Economist and the New Statesman, from the Lord Feather [of the TUC] and Mr Campbell Adamson [of the CBI], from Mr Wilson and Mr Heath, from the Royal Commission Volunteers to “Actors and Actresses for Europe”, the same advice, the same dire predictions of life outside the Market…’

It rings loud bells today. ‘Mr Barrie Heath told the workers at Guest, Keen and Nettle-folds that membership of the EEC was not even a political issue. “Is he Sir Barrie?” asked Mr Enoch Powell, the leading right-wing campaigner for a No vote. “No? Well, he soon will be.” ’ Barrie Heath was duly knighted three years later ‘for services to exporting’. Jim Callaghan’s largesse was much stingier than David Cameron’s.

My op-ed concluded by predicting that, as a result of the unbalanced campaign, the British people would decide to stay in the New Europe in the resigned spirit of ‘If you know of a better airport lounge, go to it.’ It wasn’t a risky prediction. But there were risks involved. My final sentence ran: ‘In supporting Europe, the entire British establishment has put all its money on one horse — admittedly the favourite. But what if, like most of the establishment’s fancied runners in the last 20 years, it comes in fourth?’

Just 16 months later, that happened. Voting Remain was followed by, in short order, the 1976 sterling crisis; Denis Healey turning around his car at Heathrow to respond to it; Jim Callaghan’s formal embrace of monetarism (three years before Mrs Thatcher’s); and the IMF granting Britain a loan of £3.9