Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
They just dont get us, b. They never did.
Ultimately, this is the problem. We never understood what the European project was about because we don't have the same hang-ups about WWII (albeit we have a completely different set of hang-ups about it). In fairness to him, De Gaulle knew this and knew we could simply never get on board with the whole bloody nonsense.

The problem is that, as a nation, we were sold a pup by our own politicians. We rather liked the idea of a Common Market and, by the time we realised there was a bit more to it than that, we were (seemingly) in too deep to get out. However, ever since we realised what we'd got ourselves into (around the time of Maastricht, basically), opposition to the EU has grown and grown, culminating in the referendum. That's no coincidence. As a people we loathe the idea of being subsumed by a European superstate in no small part because we don't really consider ourselves European.

I mean, one could argue that the only good reason for us to stay in the EU was to prevent it becoming a single unified superstate, but I think the idea that that was what we were doing presupposes rather too much foresight and cynicism on the part of our leaders over the last 40 years. I think we bumbled into the bloody thing and now we're bumbling our way out.