Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian
The more I look at things, the more I feel that Blair and Britain are the true Europeans, unlike the statist French. We've offered numerous concessions, including giving up much of our rebate, in exchange for reforms of farming subsidies. But the French farmers won't budge an inch (or even a centimetre).
The British the true Europeans? I'd say they're biggest whining whingers on the face of the earth.

Here's the outcome of last years budget negotiations, after all those 'numerous British concessions':
'the UK, France and Italy will be making a roughly equivalent net contribution to the EU budget from 2007 onwards'.

Of course, I took care to take that from a thrustworthy British source, the BBC.

Oh, you'll also find an entire chapter there devoted to the question that perenially obsesses Britain: 'Did France get everything it wanted?'

One thing I can't understand is why the French rejected it. They pass all the EU laws as have been argued by the member states, but they ignore anything that doesn't suit them, so "imposing an Anglo-Saxon model" shouldn't really affect them, since they'll do whatever they like anyway.
This much unfortunately is true.
France, like the UK, always takes care of her own interest first and foremost. Usually at the expense of the true real Europeans, Germany and the Netherlands.