Melting Pot or Bag of Marbles?
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 1972
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year's Reith lecturer is political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield. Currently the Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), he has previously worked as economic editor and foreign editor for The Observer (1958–61) and the Financial Times (1947–57). After fifteen years in journalism, he became the Director of Studies at the RIIA before a brief stint as Chairman of the Social Science Research Council from1969–70.
In his Reith series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination', he debates British entry into the European Community.
In this lecture entitled 'Melting Pot or Bag of Marbles?', Sir Andrew Shonfield explores integration between the European nations and questions the reasons for of the European Community. He explores the power structures which create the Community's foundations and asks how joining the EC will affect Britain. He advances the debate about what the future will hold for all the European nations.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures. |
| 0:04.1 | This lecture in the series Europe Journey to an Unknown Destination given by Andrew |
| 0:08.7 | Seanfield was originally broadcast in 1972. |
| 0:12.8 | At the climax of the great debate on British entry into the European community, |
| 0:17.4 | the argument sometimes sounded something like this. |
| 0:22.9 | One side was saying that the whole operation was a disgraceful and unnecessary surrender of national power to conduct our own affairs, |
| 0:29.8 | unnecessary because the European community was essentially a feeble thing, which would if we let it be go away. |
| 0:41.8 | And the other side, while urging us to brace ourselves for a great historic decision, |
| 0:47.4 | told us authoritatively not to worry because the community really had remarkably little power in practice to change the way in which its member states run their national affairs. |
| 0:53.9 | Well, which is it, feeble or powerful, historic or a dead bore? |
| 1:00.5 | I must admit that there are occasions when I find myself oscillating between these two views. |
| 1:07.0 | The feebleness of the organisation was very much in evidence during the bleak years of General |
| 1:11.9 | de Gaulle's rule in the 1960s when the French government seemed bent on blocking any move that |
| 1:18.1 | remotely threatened to give the community a bit of extra authority. But even as late as 1972, |
| 1:24.8 | under a very different French president, I was given a depressing demonstration of how this |
| 1:30.1 | narrow view of what the community is about continues to exercise its influence. In January, |
| 1:37.1 | when Britain was about to sign the Treaty of Accession, I happened to be in Brussels and found |
| 1:42.3 | that a violent argument was in progress about the precise form which the legal document should take. |
| 1:49.3 | In particular, was the current chairman of the Council of Ministers, Monsieur Torn of Luxembourg, to sign on behalf of the Council which had agreed the terms with Britain or not? |
| 2:01.5 | One would have thought that there could have been no doubt that he should. |
| 2:05.1 | But the French government representatives insisted that this had, after all, |
| 2:10.2 | not been a community exercise, but a negotiation between six governments |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.