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No Place to Turn. Heath's efforts to overcome such objections will be greatly handicapped by the country's growing economic difficulties, which most Britons attribute to his austere policies. The latest Gallup poll showed Heath's popularity to be at its lowest point since he took office one year ago; only 31% of those questioned approved of his performance. In addition, the Tories trail Labor by 18 points in voter preference, a reading that has been substantiated in Labor victories in recent by-elections for Commons seats. There are presently 800,000 unemployed British workers, the highest number in 30 years, and only last week Scotland's famed Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, who constructed the luxurious Queens, went into bankruptcy.
Heath's strongest argument may well be that Britain has no place else to turn. As Britain has already learned, the Commonwealth is too far-flung and economically disparate to be a workable trading community. The dreams of a North Atlantic Free Trade Area, which would have initially embraced Britain, Canada and the U.S., and eventually Australia and New Zealand, have died for lack of interest among the potential partners. EFTA, the nine-nation trading bloc that Britain organized as a counterpart to the Common Market, has for all its economic success, failed to develop sufficient cohesion to compete with the more prosperous EEC. Despite misgivings, a majority of Britons are convinced that Britain will join Europe. But if the British, in a fit of bloody-mindedness, shut themselves out this time, they may not get another opportunity.