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Interesting juxtaposition there--reflecting the congitive dissonance I think a lot of Britons feel about the EU. You refer to "our continent" and a few sentences later refer to "contenental Europe" as distinct from the UK.
My sense is that many UK folks are of two minds as to whether this whole EU thing is really A Good Idea. That there's still a separate UK currency is one sign. Blair's resistance to subsidizing "continental" agriculture is likely another.
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I used the term Continental Europe to differentiate between two different localities and cultures. Britain is both separate from and part of Europe. It comes from being an Island. We are cultural brethren in many ways and are of the same stock. We are also different in many ways because of the geographical break and the branching off of cultural development.
I don't personally have any problem with being both separate and part of at the same time. I don't see them as conflicting. I recognise and love the difference, I also feel very much of Europe. I am wholly supportive of Britain playing its full and natural role within the greater whole. I would be very happy if we took on the Euro currency and a European constitution.
But yes, a lot of Brits don't see themselves as 'European' in the political sense. I think most still see Britain as a European nation but not part of a European body politic in the federal sense.