The UK and Europe
14/01/2011
Introduction:

Over past 40years, more than any other issue, Europe has changed the nature of the politics of the UK. And the UK has often been called a “reluctant partner” of the EU.
How can such an attitude be explained?
This reluctant to Europe is the result of a large number of factors.

Internal factors:
3 main elements can be identified: UK insularity (fact it's an island); status as a former colonial power; its Constitution.

The UK's insularity

Geographical notion. Both political and psychological consequences. It protected it from invasion in 1066 (Norman invasion). Contributed to its independence. On the contrary, continental states have experienced many invasions, and as a consequence these nations saw EU unity as a necessity. Insularity also means that the UK is at the same time a part of Europe but separate from the Continent. Winston Churchill fancily declared in 1953 “We are with Europe but not of it... We are linked but not comprised... We are interested and associated but not absorbed.” UK has been a kind of bridge between EU and USA. Therefor it refused to belong to one side or another. Finally insularity has had psychological consequences, part of British mentalities and identities. Fact that UK hasnt been invaded since 1066 means that it must be able to develop its own Institution, gradually and internally. And it also means that foreign influences has not been imposed to ppl for ….
The Institution and Ideologies which result from that slow evolution are quite unique. The UK was the first parliamentary monarchy. The first country to experience the industrial revolution, it invented economic and political liberalism. Some of Institution and Ideologies were later copied in many other countries.
Psychological point of view: insularity given it a feeling of uniqueness, of self-sufficiency, of unity, of protection, of cultural superiority. Led the UK to behave in a narrow-minded