Britain and the EU: The In-Out Campaign Begins

THE arguments over Britain’s continuing membership of the European Union are heating up. On October 12th the cross-party “In” campaign was formally launched under the label “Britain Stronger in Europe”. In an effort to distance it from the list of usual pro-European politicians and to emphasise the business case for staying in, the chairman of the campaign is to be Lord Rose, a former chief executive of Marks and Spencer, itself a quintessentially British retailer. Lord Rose dismissed the argument of Eurosceptics that the patriotic course for Britain was to withdraw. He has the support not just of the three living former prime ministers, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but also of a clutch of other pro-EU business figures, including Richard Branson.