04-30-2020, 01:49 AM
(04-30-2020, 01:30 AM)Stichill_imp Wrote:(04-30-2020, 01:18 AM)VLJ_imp Wrote: Cormanus, Great Britain's Brexit issue has mainly to do with economics. It's not a cultural thing. Yacht salesmen on the Costa Brava and hedge-fund managers in Zurich share no cultural brotherhood with beet farmers in Estonia, yet they're all still Europeans. It's the same with Hugh Grant and a family of Moldovan gypsies.
This isn't merely some provincial American point of view, either. People in South America, Africa, and Asia recognize that the UK is in Europe, and that the UK's citizens and exported goods are European.
Stichill, the UK was deeply rooted in European affairs long before WWII. Case in point: WWI! The UK does not come to France's aid in both World Wars (the first, ostensibly over an Austrian dispute; the second, over the invasion of Poland) were it not for their long-standing European member-nation alliance treaties. The UK isn't compelled by treaty to go to war when Senegal, Mongolia, or Bolivia are attacked, but they are called upon to go to war when France, the Low Countries, or any of their other European allies are attacked.
That's because the UK is and always has been one of the bulwark member-nations of western Europe.
Always? England has a history of waging a litany of wars with France during the time period of 1109 to 1815, which seven centuries of conflict.
(04-29-2020, 11:46 PM)Richard_imp Wrote:(04-29-2020, 10:48 AM)Stichill_imp Wrote: I don’t think the British consider themselves European culturally. That’s where the phrase “Continental” comes from: to distinguish those on the mainland from those on the island.
Speaking as a Brit, that’s a nonsensical generalisation.
I’m both British and European.
Minority Remainer?
Always? England has a history of waging a litany of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-French_Wars]wars with France during the time period of 1109 to 1815, which seven centuries of conflict.
Yes, precisely, because England and France are...wait for it...European neighbors. Competing European nations, especially close geographic neighbors with conflicting political aspirations, tend to fight each other far more frequently than they fight nations from more far-flung regions of the planet.
Ever wonder why Poland and Romania have been involved in so many wars and conquests over the centuries? Think it might have anything to do with their immediate proximity to their very aggressive, fellow-European neighbors?
(04-30-2020, 01:32 AM)Stichill_imp Wrote:(04-30-2020, 12:11 AM)The ferret_imp Wrote: Interesting article about that here
[url=https://whatukthinks.org/eu/media-centre/britain-feels-less-european-than-anywhere-else-in-the-eu/]https://whatukthinks.org/eu/media-centre/britain-feels-less-european-than-anywhere-else-in-the-eu/
As I already pointed out, that stupid poll also states that a third of the French and a quarter of the Germans don't "feel European." Are we now going to entertain the notion of France and Germany not being European, or part of Europe?
