On the eve of the Second World War, three Oxbridge graduates joined forces in London and wrote a pamphlet calling for the union of Britain with other democracies to avert the coming conflict. They sent the short pamphlet, titled “Federal Union”, to more than 500 opinion-makers in Britain. The warm reception of their federalist ideas led to the launch of an organisation named after the pamphlet. By 1939 more than 200 branches of the organisation were founded all over Britain, with more than 10,000 members.
Yet the “Phony War” of 1939 ended with the fall of France in 1940, and also public enthusiasm about federalism. The Federal Union responded by founding the Federal Union Research Institute (FURI) to study the advantages and means of transnational federation. The scholarly discussions, aimed at transforming the opinions of policy-makers and the public, were often concerned with economic issues, including fiscal policies, currency, trade, social services, migration and labour.
