The 1975 Referendum

Our last chance to vote on our membership of the EU was in 1975. Among the arguments used then was our ability to veto any proposed reform. That safeguard was decisive in persuading many doubters to go in. This is how the Government put it at the time, in a leaflet circulated to all voters:

"The Minister representing Britain can veto any proposal for a new law or a new tax if he considers it to be against British interests."

"Remember: All the other countries in the Market enjoy, like us, democratically elected governments answerable to their own parliaments and their own voters. They do not want to weaken their Parliaments any more than we would."

Read a facsimile of the 1975 Government leaflet in full. (PowerPoint)

Then compare the EU we know today with the institution portrayed in the 1975 leaflet.