From the 'Thatcherisation of Europe' to Brexit

This article begins by recalling the early ambiguities of Margaret Thatcher’s positions on Europe, and then the role Britain played in the creation of the Single Market as of 1986. This has often been referred to as the “Thatcherisation of Europe”, and the launching of the Single Market was the high-point of Britain’s involvement in the EEC/EU. The article goes on to look at the rising tensions between Britain and its partners that followed soon, notably as Jacques Delors’ integrationist aspirations became clearer. Mrs Thatcher’s position at that point, stated clearly in her Bruges Speech of September 1988, summarises starkly Britain’s consistent reluctance to engage in the process of institutional and political convergence that has always been part of the European project. Such tensions gave way to deepening Euroscepticism in the Conservative party, in the wake of Britain’s thwart membership of the ERM/EMS (1990-1992). The article then examines how Britain shifted away from Europe’s post-war social model under Margaret Thatcher, drawing on the “varieties of capitalism” literature, and argues that this created the economic foundations for Brexit. The article ends by examining the inherent contradiction between the Conservatives’ drive to reduce the size of government since the global financial crisis and Great Recession, while at the same time pursuing globalisation: it draws here on the work of Dani Rodrik and his political “trilemma” of the world economy.