British Scepticism and the European Union: A Guide for Foreigners

Abstract

As I hope my title implies, I am not necessarily myself advocating scepticism about the EU, but merely explaining and describing the British version of it. Explication, then, and not advocacy is the order of the day. Secondly, it must be emphasised that the motivation for undertaking the exercise derives from contacts with continental colleagues who tend to be deeply puzzled by Britain’s continued aberrant attitude to the Union. What, they ask, more in sorrow than in anger, is Britain worried about? Almost every other member country is happy to tread the path of increasing integration without agonizing about its status as a nation state. How sad it is, they usually add, to see a once great power so eaten up with xenophobia and national pride that it sinks to spoiling manoeuvres and mindless obstruction to a noble endeavour. Could it be, they seem to hint, yet another example of British anti-cooperative and aggressive ‘maverickism’ which is so out of tune with the prevailing Zeitgeist and seems to be on a par, say, with the ludicrous triumphalism of Mr Major’s verdict on Britain’s performance at the Maastricht Summit: ‘Game, Set, and Match’. Alternatively, British anti-Union attitudes are seen as being the equivalent of British lager louts laying waste to yet another Costa Brava resort, or the monstrous riot of the Liverpool fans at the Heysel stadium, or, even, the ruthless efficiency with which Britain prosecuted the Falklands War.