How Important in building European Unity was the Masstricht treaty ?

... ubt on the operational validity of his arguments for Britain and the rest of Europe. As was noted earlier, however, this debate cannot be characterised simply as deregulation versus the 'Social Chapter'. Before the debate can be widened further, the real and perceived relationship between the two must therefore be discussed.

Regulation and deregulation are political categories; in the real world of industry there can be only types and degrees of regulation. The significance of this statement lies in the fact that domestic politics has polarised the regulation debate in Britain. The Labour party's commitment to such policies as a minimum wage, ensuring job security for employees and co-determination as well as the 'Social Chapter' has allowed the government to collectively reject such policies as regulatory, forming in the minds of the public a strong association between the chapter and other industrial regulations. For instance John Major, speaking in 1994, stated, "the 'Social Chapter' would create jobs, but in Japan, not here. A maximum working week would create jobs, but in the Pacific basin, not here".(Leathley 1994a). An example of the confusion such statements have created can be seen in a letter to the Times from Mr P Hayward (1993) in which he professes worry over possible job security measures he believes will result from the 'Social Chapter'. The fact is that, had Britain signed, the government would have retained their veto over measures relating to worker dismissal as well as co-determination, and, furthermore, the chapter contained no provision whatsoever concerning minimum wages. Accusations such as that from Dr Jack Cunningham who claimed the government were "peddling a lie that the 'Social Chapter' would affect trade union legislation" (Leathley 1994b) would, then, seem to be reasonably well founded if somewhat overzealous. In the light of all this, the fact that in June 1994 over three-quarters of 300 top businessmen interviewed in a Gallup poll believed that signing the 'Social Chapter' would be detrimental to British companies may be seen as largely an endorsement of deregulation in Britain rather than ...