Friday January 31 marks the first ever withdrawal of a country from the 28-strong European Union, which had just six members on its formation in 1958. There has been a sad little spat about how to mark the occasion. ‘Big Ben Must Bong for Brexit’ according to the Daily Mail, but the Westminster clock is out of commission and there will be speeches instead.

The first recruits added to the six founders were Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, which joined the EU (the Common Market as it was then known) together on 1 January 1973, 47 years ago.

A fateful match

The UK government organised a modest festival, called the Fanfare for Europe, the highlight of which was a football match on January 3 at Wembley stadium between a team representing the three new entrants and one selected from the six founders - France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries. Many of the great stars of the era turned out, including Bobby Charlton of Manchester United for the Three and Bayern Munich’s Franz Beckenbauer for the Six. The home team, the Three, won the game 2-0, but ominously none of the English contingent scored, a Scot and a Dane doing the honours. The after-match comments of the players on this historic expansion of the European family have been archived by the soccer magazine When Saturday Comes.

The home team, the Three, won the game 2-0, but ominously none of the English contingent scored

Germany’s Beckenbauer said: “The Common Market is vital to us, as it encourages us to work more closely together and that will hopefully mean that Europe will remain peaceful.” Ireland’s Johnny Giles observed that “a small country like Ireland needs close business and trade links with other European nations, so I’m certainly in favour”, these two great players identifying peace and prosperity as the key post-match issues. But England’s Alan Ball was more prosaic: “The only thing that interests me about joining the Common Market is whether or not it will make my family’s summer holidays cheaper.”

And there you have it, Brexit foretold in the Wembley dressing-room. As it happens, Alan Ball’s wish for cheaper holidays was delivered in due course. It was the European Commission that liberalised air transport from the mid-1980s onwards, ushering in the era of easyJet and Ryanair. And it was the European Court of Justice, in the Bosman ruling of 1995, that ensured freedom of contract for professional footballers. Players as good as Alan Ball can nowadays afford to hire their own aeroplanes.

But the lack of enthusiasm, the feeling that Europe was somehow an unsatisfactory substitute for a glorious past, has been ever-present, driving the transactional attitude to the EU

Unlikely departure

There was nothing inevitable about the UK’s decision to depart after almost half a century. The referendum was called in an act of political expediency by David Cameron, who never wanted the UK to leave, and he lost narrowly 52 to 48.

But the lack of enthusiasm, the feeling that Europe was somehow an unsatisfactory substitute for a glorious past, has been ever-present, driving the transactional attitude to the EU expressed so candidly by Alan Ball back in 1973. Even on this basis (“what’s in it for us”) the Remain side won the argument as they lost the 2016 referendum. The UK has chosen to depart the trading bloc most suited to it, on what can only be disadvantageous terms, given its unwillingness to stay close to the single market and customs union. Every analysis conducted, including those by the government’s own advisers in the Treasury, concludes that the UK economy will suffer and that offsetting gains from new markets in America or anywhere else are fanciful.

The UK has chosen to depart the trading bloc most suited to it, on what can only be disadvantageous terms

Referendums

The devolved parliaments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have registered their opposition to the parliamentary act giving effect to Friday’s withdrawal, a symbolic gesture, but a reminder that both Scotland and Northern Ireland could have referendums in the period ahead on their possible detachment from the UK. Both voted to remain in the EU at the referendum, prompting some commentators to predict the imminent break-up of the UK itself because of Brexit. But Wales voted to leave and the nationalist party there (Plaid Cymru) has never attracted great support.

The next phase of Britain’s European odyssey begins, with a difficult negotiation about trade

There is no inevitability that referendums in either Scotland or Northern Ireland would opt for separation either and talk of the UK’s early demise is overdone. So too is speculation about the UK reversing Brexit. That would require a series of less-than-likely developments - the Labour party to back a fresh membership application, to win an election on that platform and presumably a subsequent referendum, and then to secure a welcome back from a sceptical EU.

The next phase of Britain’s European odyssey begins, with a difficult negotiation about trade and, I fear, a poor outcome for the British economy.

With Big Ben unavailable, another Wembley match with England alone facing the EU-27 might have been the most resonant alternative, the out-gunned home side going under this time round, but finally on the scoresheet (Cameron, og).

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