End Of The Penny?

I know we're an island, but there are still nations of mainland europe who aren't in the silly EU..

We will fight them on the beaches, we will ...... never give up!

Keep on dreaming, EUROPHILE!!

:>P

I don't think you need to be worrying about parts of the UK getting their independence. The basques and catalans have been trying since democracy in the 1975 to gain independence from spain, they are no where near it, but are much closer than any of the nations in the UK.
Northern ireland would errupt with major problems if it occured any time soon, scotland simply does not have enough people who want it, take sean connery for example, the great scottish patriot, where does he live? Oh yeah in america.
Wales does not even have a proper parliament, when working for the labour party a few years back at a welsh conference, there were loads of people who wanted to see blair, but we were forced to go and watch rhodri morgan speak (the assembly leader) because nobody cared and they did not want it looking bad on TV.

You have to remember also about UK entry into the Euro, we have 33% of our press controlled by an american who does not want a strong europe to compete against america, so he wants britian to stay out. Until enough support comes through the press, the british people will continue to be anti euro and europe, without knowing why.

Most of us have very valid reasons Augsberger for not wanting to be in Euro land but I think keeping our own separate identity from a superstate that we do not share a language or a culture with is good enough on it's own. Look at what happened in Yugoslavia. Several countries that had nothing in common pushed together & then less than 50 years later they are killing each other to get out. What happens in 50 years time if Germany wants out & the rest of Europe says no? Do we have another war to settle it?
We have more in common with the US than the EU, especially in language & culture. I'd personally rather join NAFTA than the EU. Don't get me wrong...I like Europe...but as a holiday destination! Keep our currency, keep our identity, keep our independence. Being British means a lot to us, being European to me means nothing. Euros are for me to collect as a hobby, not to collect in my pay cheque each month.

I had no idea British had such feelings against EU :)

The superstate idea comes from many people in europe, especially in germany, spain, possibly france. Many people want to be a force that can take on the USA head to head. I don´t want to be like the USA though, you should learn from the mistakes of others.

I understand that people do not want to be this kind of super state, but in the UK many people just don´t like europe because they are told they do not like europe. Look on yahoo answers for what people think about the euro. "If England enters The euro Britons shall be slaves?" and other such things. I remember the day the euro came in and on the front page of one of the trash papers like the mirror I think it was they had a list of things about the euro. Near the top it said something like "Euro notes easily laundered" and then down near the bottom it said, "euro notes are hard to fake", it meant that euro notes could go through the wash quite easily and come out and still be used, but that is not what people would have read.

As for identity, I don´t think your money plays that much of a part. Ok, it´s cool to go abroad and see different coins and whatever, but that is not national identity.
I do agree that if someone wants to pull out it could be a problem. However I think that that has much more to do with the politics of the EU and the attempt to form this european super state than the actual issue of the currency. I am against a major political union with MEPs and all that, but I am in favour of an economic system that is beneficial for each separate nation.

That last pro-Euro message was fascinating -

Well, it is a "superstate" for those who insist on perceiving the European Union as a superstate.

Just out of interest, how many nations now comprise the EU?

And,

The latest Council meeting made it pretty obvious that the EU is far from that,........

It's just as well I didn't know anything about it then

Thanks for informing me there was a dissenter :) - by the way though, if we were to defect from the EU, what exactly could the muscles in Bruxelles do about it, eh, eh?

Not a thing. Let em' burn!

(Och! there goes my knee....)

quote:

---

by the way though, if we were to defect from the EU, what exactly could the muscles in Bruxelles do about it, eh, eh?

---

If the British finally decided to leave the European Union instead of the usual bickering and whining about how they are "trapped" in and by the EU etc. etc., you would easily find out. You already suggested a reply: "Not a thing." Indeed.

But in the EU there is no way of throwing a member state out, so you would need to do that yourself. The UK (government? population?) does not seem to be interested in making that step though. Oh well, the euro and Schengen are two examples of how things may work too: some member states participate, some do not.

Christian