Captured by : OPED SECOND LEAD
A potent force in British politics for decades, euroscepticism forced Prime Minister David Cameron to call a referendum on leaving the EU -- and could still thwart his efforts to stay in. Despite the prime minister's own support for staying in, some of his senior ministers, including Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, look poised to come out in favour of the out campaign as early as this week.
Many Britons, encouraged by an often hostile popular press, share their anti-EU views. "I'm English and not European," said Fred Varley, an 80-year-old who wants to leave the EU, in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, a hotbed of euroscepticism. "I believe Germany has tried in two world wars to overtake this country and they've failed and they're doing it legally now through the European thing."
Some 51 percent of Britons currently want to remain in the EU compared to 49 percent who want to leave, according to an average of opinion polls by the What UK Thinks research project -- though this average does not count the many voters who are still undecided. "The most difficult thing about the referendum is that the arguments in favour are complicated, economic, numerical and rational," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think tank. "The arguments against are simple, emotional and romantic: do you want to be ruled by foreigners or not?"
Cameron first promised an in-out referendum on EU membership in 2013 in a bid to placate powerful eurosceptics in his centre-right Conservative party who already harboured suspicions about the European project and were growing increasingly concerned by the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party. The word euroscepticism seems first to have been used by The Times newspaper in 1986, but its roots go back further than that.
Britain had bids to become part of the European single market vetoed twice by France in the 1960s, finally joining in 1973 -- its membership was sealed by a previous referendum two years later -- and has since negotiated significant opt-outs. It does not use the euro, is not a member of the Schengen passport-free movement area and receives a significant rebate from yearly budget contributions. "From Britain's perspective, it has never been totally committed to European integration as an end in itself because it always felt it has other options in the world," such as ties with the United States, said Tim Oliver of the London School of Economics.
One of Cameron's predecessors, Margaret Thatcher, is an icon for eurosceptics for securing the rebate and proclamations such as her defiant 1990 "No, no, no!" speech against greater centralised European control. A recurring question during recent weeks of the campaign has been "What would Maggie do?" with former advisors and commentators arguing about how Thatcher, who died in 2013, would have voted in the referendum.
Many Britons believe the EU's role should be purely economic and that it should stay out of domestic politics. Immigration in particular will be an important issue in the campaign -- Cameron has fought hard for an emergency brake on welfare payments to EU migrants as part of a reform deal which he will use to argue for Britain to remain in the bloc. "For remain voters, it is their view of the economic implications of leaving that is more likely to be the key to their referendum choice, whereas amongst leave voters, immigration is the bigger concern," said John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University.
Eurosceptics face their own hurdles. With experts believing as many as 20 percent of voters are undecided, they must make a convincing case for a jump into the unknown by leaving the EU. "The aim of the out campaign is to portray Europe as a burning building with an exit," George Eaton, political editor of the New Statesman magazine, wrote this month. "But like a cartoon character who succumbs to gravity in mid-air, voters fear a painful landing."
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Britain's relationship with the EU
August 9, 1961: Britain makes its first formal application to join what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) under then Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan.
January 14, 1963: France's then president General Charles de Gaulle vetoes the application for the first time. He does the same thing for a second application on November 27, 1967.
January 1, 1973: Britain finally enters the EEC at the same time as Ireland and Denmark, after de Gaulle has left office.
June 5, 1975: In a referendum on membership of the EEC, Britain votes "Yes" by slightly over 67 percent.
November 30, 1979: Prime minister Margaret Thatcher demands a rebate of Britain's contribution to the European budget in a speech which became best known for a phrase attributed to her as: "I want my money back!"
September 20, 1988: Thatcher gives a landmark speech in the Belgian city of Bruges which has come to be seen as a rallying cry among eurosceptics for less European integration.
February 7, 1992: The Treaty of Maastricht, which underpinned the next stage of European integration, is signed. Britain secures an opt-out from joining the single European currency.
July 23, 1993: Prime minister John Major holds a confidence motion in his government over the Maastricht Treaty after serious infighting in his Conservative party over Europe. He is caught on camera calling eurosceptic ministers plotting against him "bastards".
April 20, 2004: Labour prime minister Tony Blair, a europhile, announces his intention to hold a referendum on the European constitution. It is never held, after France and Denmark rejected it.
January 23, 2013: Cameron promises a referendum on EU membership if his Conservative party wins the next general election.
May 22, 2014: The anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) tops the polls in European elections with more than 26 percent of the vote, securing 24 seats.
May 7, 2015: Cameron's Conservatives win a surprise clear majority in the general election, clearing the way for a referendum to be held.
