Policy-making in the Treasury : Explaining Britain's Chosen Path on European Economic and Monetary Union. PDF

The arrival of European economic and monetary union (EMU) has been one of the biggest and most controversial issues that has confronted British politics in recent memory.

Successive British governments from Callaghan to Blair and Conservative Prime Ministers in between have chosen a path that has placed Britain as the 'awkward partner' in Europe, and have often been accused of bending under the pressure of Euroscepticism either in their parties or the wider public.

Through official government papers and interviews with former ministers and officials, this book goes behind the doors of the Treasury and Number 10 and reveals that policies were not shaped by Euroscepticism but rather primarily by repeated and methodical Treasury-led cost-benefit analysis of the EMU option.

Furthermore, the findings of this book have real significance for our wider understanding of both the machinery of British government and the drivers of its relationship with Europe over recent decades.