Make my day

“OUR decline in relation to our European partners has been so marked that today we are not only no longer a world power, but we are not in the first rank even as a European one.” So wrote Sir Nicholas Henderson, Britain's ambassador to France, in a confidential farewell telegram 25 years ago, which was leaked to The Economist and published on June 2nd 1979, just one month after Margaret Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street. His dispatch was accompanied by a table showing that, in 1977, Britain's GDP per head was 41% lower than France's and 46% lower than (West) Germany's, having been well ahead of both in 1954. Sir Nicholas argued that Britain's failure to participate fully in Europe's integration had played a big part in this relative decline. Rather like the people of the eight central European countries that joined the European Union last week, the British in the 1970s felt that only by signing up to the European project could they hope to climb back into the first division.