“Britain is going to look back on Monday, Jan. 1, 1973, in all probability, as a most tragically historic date—a date fraught with ominous potentialities! For that date marked the United Kingdom’s entry into the European Community” (emphasis mine throughout).

Herbert W. Armstrong. March 1973.

Those familiar with his writings know that’s classic Mr. Armstrong: gripping, plain, sincere. But most importantly, accurate and prescient!

Just ask the growing number of Britons grappling with the realization that the European Union has established a major beachhead within British society. Next Thursday is the 36-year anniversary of Britain’s entrance into the European Community (EC). For many, it’s hard not to look back on Jan. 1, 1973, and not consider it a “tragically historic date.” Today, the “ominous potentialities” Mr. Armstrong referred to have become alarming realities.

Consider a few examples.

Last week, British media outlets lit up when the European Parliament voted to scrap the UK’s opt-out clause from European Union labor market rules that cap the work week at 48 hours. Britain won the opt-out clause in 1993. Currently, 3 million British workers use Britain’s opt-out, choosing not to restrict their work week to the EU-mandated 48 hours.

Now “[m]illions of [British] workers are facing a potentially crippling overtime ban after Euro mps voted to scrap Britain’s cherished opt-out from the 48-hour working week,” the Mail Online wrote. The timing of the EU’s vote to scrap Britain’s right to opt out couldn’t be worse; nearly 2 million Britons are unemployed, and the country is in the midst of its worst recession in generations. Rarely has the right for families to earn extra cash by working overtime been more needed.

The suits in Brussels don’t care. When the tally of the vote was announced in the European Parliament last week, meps burst into enthusiastic applause. And although the decision is not yet final, and some British ministers and business leaders have vowed to fight to keep the opt-out clause, the outlook is grim for British workers. Says the Mail, “The final decision—likely to be made next spring—would be taken by a qualified-majority vote, leaving Britain without a veto.”

This is powerful evidence of the EU’s dramatic influence within British society.

The EU’s infiltration of Britain these past 36 years is not unlike the way spyware infiltrates a computer. It embeds itself on your hard drive innocuously. It’s easy to miss. Protected by your ignorance, it invades and grows. You won’t notice it unless you stop and search it out, or it impinges on a routine operation. From time to time the computer spurts and splutters. Something weird happens: music plays abruptly, strange windows pop up, a video starts playing. Something’s not right, you think. But you move on. A momentary glitch. It’ll sort itself out; the network gurus are watching out for us. But one day, the spy—now entrenched within your system—reveals itself. A simple file is corrupted. Pop-ups invade and cannot be squelched. The computer slows to a snail’s pace. Your operating system refuses to open: insufficient memory! Anguished realization ensues: I’ve been hijacked!

Fruit and vegetable wholesaler and father of three, Tim Down, had his moment of anguished realization earlier this year. In June, he received a visit from officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who, after conducting their two-hour inspection, demanded he throw out a batch of kiwi fruits. Why? Essentially, because they were 1 millimeter smaller than EU rules allow. Facing a fine of up to £5,000 for selling or even giving away the kiwis, Mr. Down had no other choice but to toss the fruit to comply with EU standards.

Mr. Down is among the growing number of Britons coming to terms with the maddening reach of European bureaucrats into British law and society. Restaurant owners face steep fines and even closure for having ovens that do not bear a CE (Conformité Européenne) mark certifying that the equipment meets environmental and safety standards dictated by Brussels. Small-scale gardeners are forced to meet European requirements governing the sale of excess produce from a roadside stall. Millions of British vehicle owners, after 2011, will be required by EU law to drive with dipped headlights at any time of the day. The list goes on, and on, and on.

Admittedly, some of these may seem minimal invasions of day-to-day life. But such examples are widespread, and testify to the invasive, undemocratic, even imperialist nature and goals of the lawmakers in Brussels, as well as the spirit of capitulation infecting all too many British leaders. Britain’s large-scale subservience to EU laws and regulations is a result of a stealth 36-year campaign by European leaders to infiltrate British society and establish EU laws and regulations within the British operating system!

And if you grasp the spirit driving Europe, these seemingly minor laws and regulations are merely harbingers of much, much more to come!

This is exactly what Herbert Armstrong was warning about when he said Britain’s entrance into the EC was “fraught with ominous potentialities.”

Some have yet to realize the extent of the EU’s control. They will. Perhaps it might occur when a looming change to British auto law comes into effect. Currently, British motorists and independent garages operate under an arrangement known as “block exemption,” which says that the auto industry and car manufacturers must provide parts and important computer codes to independent garages (auto mechanic shops)—which are generally cheaper than car dealerships—in order for them to carry out repairs.

If the EU has its way, Britain’s “block exemption” arrangement will be scrapped in 2010, and car manufacturers will no longer be forced to provide parts and computer codes to independent mechanics. The EU’s change in law, say experts, could be the deathblow to as many as 20,000 independent garages in Britain and could affect as many as 20 million motorists, many of whom will be forced to have their vehicles repaired at expensive car dealerships.

Gerald Töben had his moment of anguished realization recently. The 64-year-old teacher from Australia was tossed in jail after being arrested at Heathrow Airport by British police acting on a warrant issued by German authorities. If British police enforcing a German warrant sounds a little unorthodox, get this: Töben was arrested for “Holocaust denial,” which is a crime in Germany, but not in Britain. When it signed up to the EU’s European Arrest Warrant act six years ago, Britain accepted the absurd conditions that led to this man being arrested in Britain for a crime that is not even on British books. The EU’s beachhead into Britain’s judiciary, as Lord Christopher Monckton showed earlier this year, is vast.

Examples of the infiltration are numerous and, as the Euroskeptic movement inside Britain continues to grow, increasingly well-documented. And while many Britons are adapting, a crisis between the EU and those skeptical, even fearful, of the goals and motives of Brussels is brewing. In fact, London’s relationship with Brussels, as Joel Hilliker explained recently, is primed to disintegrate. This is exactly what Mr. Armstrong said would happen, 36 years ago!

“Britain’s entry into the European Community portends a tragic situation,” concluded the 1973 Plain Truth article. “Britain will be faced with a dilemma.” That dilemma, explained Mr. Armstrong, would revolve around the role of a fundamentally Protestant Britain in a Catholic-dominated imperialistic United States of Europe.

We are witnesses to that dilemma!

Mr. Armstrong’s keynote prophecy was about the rise of a German-led European beast power. Oftentimes, he would talk or write about Britain’s relationship with this soon-coming United States of Europe. “The stage is all set!” he wrote in 1956. “All that’s lacking now is the strong LEADER—the coming FÜHRER! The Germans are coming back from the destruction of World War ii in breathtaking manner. Germany is the economic and military heart of Europe. Probably Germany will lead and dominate the coming United States of Europe. But Britain will be no part of it!”

Herbert Armstrong warned for decades that Britain would not be a part of the coming final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Even as British Prime Minister Edward Heath gleefully railroaded his country into the Economic Community in 1973, Mr. Armstrong warned that it was an experiment doomed to failure, and that the British—as many are doing right now—would look back on that day as a “tragically historic date.”

He was right!

As growing numbers of Britons awake to the alarming extent of the EU’s influence inside Britain, and as tensions mount between Brussels and London—not to mention between the British public and government—it’s important to watch this prophetically significant situation. The removal of Britain from a uniting Europe, be it of its own accord or perhaps by force, precedes the fulfillment of other dramatic events on the world scene. Read Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy for a detailed account of where current events in Britain are heading.