Jim Buller

This work puts certain aspects of Britain's relationship with the EU under the microscope, examining the evidence for Britain's reputation as an "awkward partner". It focuses on the policy of successive Conservative governments, asking why the Conservative Party of this period, electorally one of the most successful political parties in the 20th century, eventually tore itself apart over Europe. Isolating key events such as the signing of the Single European Act, the decision to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1990 and the ratification of the Treaty on European Union including a commitment to complete Stages One and Two of the Single Currency, Buller analyzes the motivations of the Conservative government in acting as they did. He argues that far from being a "semi-detached" partner, British economic policy was increasingly "Europeanised" in this period.

Providing an engagement with late-1990s perspectives on the development of the British State in the postwar period, this text challenges many of the well-established orthodoxies. It focuses on conceptions of consensus, evolution and transformation, and continuity and discontinuity.

This broad-ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well-established orthodoxies.