How many wars before the 70s?
The UK weren't in the EU then and there weren't western European wars in over a 25 year gap. So the UK being in the EU isn't the anti-war talisman you like to claim
But the EU has existed initially as the European Coal and Steel Community since 1951. Just because we weren't in it didn't mean it didn't exist. The two big culprits as far as war in Western Europe is concerned, France and Germany bound together. With Italy the other beaten nation and Benelux - the buffer states. Nearly 60 years. Unheard of. At the time the UK was busy divesting itself of its empire. And once this process was well under way we applied to join - turned down at first by DeGaulle, but eventually less chavinistic leaders took over in France and we were admitted in 1972. I reckon we've benefited. Who can say what would have happened if... A point I made earlier in this thread. Would things have been better or worse,it can only be an opinion. But there are sections of the British establishment who hate Europe and everything about it and always have done. Once again presumably they come from the same stable as those who in WWII wanted to make peace with Hitler and let him wander off into the Soviet Union. Shortsighted. Germany in control of the vast resources of Western Russia, the Ukraine and Belorus would have been unstoppable.
Edited by Trojan, 28 November 2010 - 07:55 PM.
