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SUMMARY:Helmut Schmidt\, Harold Wilson\, and the British Renegotiation of 
 EC-Membership\, 1974-5 - Mathias Haeussler\, PhD student\, Robinson Colleg
 e
DTSTART:20140219T130000Z
DTEND:20140219T140000Z
UID:TALK50415@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:DJ Goode
DESCRIPTION:In January 2013\, Prime Minister David Cameron proposed to ren
 egotiate the terms of Britain’s membership of the European Union\, follo
 wed by a nationwide ‘in or out’ referendum. It was a move designed pri
 marily to keep his Eurosceptic backbenchers at bay\, while also trying to 
 appease widespread public unease over Britain’s future relationship with
  Europe. In his quest\, so he claimed\, Cameron hoped for strong German ba
 cking.\n\nThis is not a new strategy. Already in 1974-5\, Labour Prime Min
 ister Harold Wilson pulled off a similar feat\, in the end keeping a deepl
 y divided Labour Party together while also keeping Britain in Europe. And\
 , just like Cameron\, Wilson had gambled on strong German support at the t
 ime.\n\nYet\, such hopes proved to be misplaced. Though Wilson managed to 
 get a successful referendum outcome in the end\, Britain’s reputation in
 side the European Community suffered significantly as a result\, in partic
 ular with regards to the initially sympathetic German chancellor Helmut Sc
 hmidt.\n\nMy talk revisits the renegotiations of 1974-5 through the prism 
 of these two protagonists. By asking what went wrong with Schmidt and Wils
 on at the time\, it analyses not only on the nitty-gritty details of Europ
 ean diplomacy\, but it also reveals the very different worldviews and nati
 onal agendas behind British and German conceptions of European integration
  more generally. In so doing\, the talk offers important historical backgr
 ound to Britain’s troubled relationship with European integration\, whil
 e also suggesting some lessons for Cameron’s strategy today.
LOCATION:Combination Room\, Wolfson College
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