190 years of The Spectator
4 June 1975
At no time during the campaign have the opponents of our membership of the EEC been remotely as unbalanced, as hysterical or as deliberately personally insulting as those in the opposite camp. Naturally, as in any vigorously fought campaign, there have been some fibs and half-truths on both sides; and each partisan has looked eagerly at evidence which may have several possible interpretations in order to find material that will support his cause. But nothing on the anti-Market side has even begun to equal the tirade of personal insults, and the sickening appeal to fear, that has characterised everything the pro-Marketeers have done.
More: though the pro-Marketeers of both parties have, in every major House of Commons debate in which they needed support from waverers, stressed that the object of negotiations with the EEC was to see whether a deal advantageous for Britain could be done, and though they insisted on our ability to go it alone if necessary, their current emphasis is on the weakness, poverty and inability of Britain.
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