Focus on Europe: Free enterprise Britain?

Abstract

On 3 May 1979 the Conservative Party won a substanial (43-seat) majority in the UK Parliamentary elections. It seems likely to govern for the next four or five years. At first, this change may not seem to be dramatic: the Labour government which had been in power since 1974 had become increasingly moderate — concerned more with careful management of the economy than with socialist legislation. However, this Conservative government is quite different from its predecessors and most other leading ‘right-wing’ parties in Europe. Its opponents have accused it of reversing the industrial policies of such Conservative Prime Ministers as Sir Winston Churchill. In the European Assembly (the parliament of the European Communities or Common Market), the British Conservative Party is not allied to such major parties as the Christian Democrats and the Giscardians, but to some small and rather extreme ones. Having won 60 of the 78 British seats in the European Assembly elections of 7 June, the Conservative Party will be the main advocate at the European Assembly of US-style industrial policies: reliance on reward to stimulate and on competition to regulate and avoidance of government interference. Given the uncertain applicability of the Treaty of Rome to telecommunication tariffs, the Conservative Euro-MPs may have significant effects.