The great debate11

The “captains and kings”¹²of the Commonwealth having departed, the tumult and the shouting about the Common Market are more likely to flare up than to die down. This is as it should be. The Government’s pledges about the Commonwealth and EFTA were not given to them. They were assurances given to the British people. Whether the pledges have been kept or not, and whether Britain will be in a position honourably to join the Six, will be for Parliament to decide. Even more strongly is it for the nation through Parliament to weigh the advantages and disadvantages, the opportunities and the hazards, of such a step. The sooner the great national debate can get under way the better.

It has always been unreal to believe it could be postponed until after everything had been signed in Brussels. Now that the talks threaten to go on for a further appreciable time the Government will be forced to campaign if a national will to enter is to be maintained. This is not merely a matter of the merits of the case having to be kept in mind. A government that does not appear to be actively fighting for a cause it believes in is apt to find that cause losing ground whatever its merits. The same thing is true within the Conservative party. It is by no means unanimous about the Common Market. The opponents will not match any official restraints. Next month’s party conference could start a hardening process one way or the other.

Mr Gaitskell is perhaps in the most difficult position. Exactly how his party is split on the Common Market is hotly disputed on another page. That it is split is obvious. However much he may lean one way or the other, Mr Gaitskell cannot afford yet to come off his fence. He declares the economic arguments are evenly balanced. He is ominous about the political hazards. He summons up the glow of our historic past generally and the gloom of today’s Commonwealth on this particular issue. The one thing he is forthright about is that the terms Mr Heath is likely to get will not be good enough, the implication being that a Labour Government’s negotiator would get better ones.

There is no need to warn so able a politician as Mr Gaitskell of the dangers he runs. If a general election gave him office he might find himself quickly having to justify his assertions. Either he would have to negotiate, with no certainty of making good his terms or he would have to turn his back on Brussels and lead Britain in some other direction.

The national debate will be healthy only if in this matter of alternatives certain questions are frankly answered. What are the actual possibilities of Commonwealth trade being built up to be a satisfactory alternative? How many Commonwealth countries would be willing to mortgage enough of their economic freedom for a sufficient number of years ahead and advantageously enough for Britain to make this abandonment of the will to join the Six a fair exchange? Most important of all, how long under such an arrangement would Britain be able to remain a satisfying enough market for the Commonwealth? The debate on the Common Market must never be allowed to stray far from the state of the British nation.

Text 10