Quote Originally Posted by Furunculus View Post
ah well, in that case my thoughts are summed up by:

1. the EU was invented by france to ensure that germany never invaded again, germany was a bit embarrassed and so complied, their neighbours thought that was a jolly good idea too. not a problem Britain has.
I don't know why you keep bringing this on. After WW2, Germany was in no position to threaten France in any way. Partitioned, no army, no economy, no political influence, not to mention that a little later France became a nuclear power. Since Germany wasn't (and still isn't and won't be), no military threat to France from Germany exists.

Granted, UK is somewhat different to most European states in that regard and London is still one of the world's top financial centers, but is going to change and importance of London as a financial center is going to decline. By using "channels" (I'm sure there's a better word, but nothing comes to mind right now) from the times of the empire, London still controls a good chunk of money flow from southeast Asia and Middle East and that is going to change in favour of new financial centers that are emerging there... I expect that in several decades, UK will adopt the Euro and start integrating more in EU. Maybe even earlier, it depends on a huge number of factors...