It is truly astonishing to reflect how much more common sense the conservative party of 50 years ago had than that of today. They would rightly be as uncertain as ourselves about our future role and place in the world… Our power to influence the Communities would steadily diminish, while the Communities’ power to affect our future would as steadily increase.”įrom a government White Paper of 1971, discussing the likely consequences of staying outside the EEC. Our friends everywhere would be dismayed. “In a single generation we should have renounced an imperial past and rejected a European future.