Didn’t we try to join the common market three times but were rejected twice as it was thought we would just be divisive trouble makers?
A lot of that was De Gaulle being, well, De Gaulle. He actually made Harold MacMillan cry at one point. Then took the piss by telling an audience he wanted to say “Ne pleurer pas, m’lord”.
But yes, we had to accept not to be a pain in the arse when it came to the ‘special relationship’ with the US and any colonial pretensions we may have still been nursing.
The ‘special relationship’ did mean something so long as the US wanted the UK as an unsinkable aircraft carrier and a base for polaris subs.
Now it is the EU that has a better relationship with the US and ‘we’ look like a bunch of prats. Which ‘we’ are.