Quote Originally Posted by Furunculus View Post
1000+ years of co-existence and co-dependence has forged the English people, and latterly the British peoples, into a group with a shared culture, shared social norms and values, and a shared world view.
And how did it come about?

You may recall that in 1603 a certain James Stuart descended from Scotland to London to assume the throne of Great Britain. The personal union of Scotland with England and Ireland wasn't exactly a love affair, leading to the Bishops' Wars, a civil war in Scotland, the War of the Three Kingdoms, and to James' and Charles' own excesses (both father and son allowed themselves to be rules by adventurers like Buckingham and certain Spanish and French princesses). Yet this difficult episode brought the isles together.

I could point to similar episodes in the 'making' of Great Britain.

I could give you the Dutch successor to the British throne whose ascent (in 1689) marked the start of a prolonged period of growth for the nation, even though he himself was scorned by part of the British public on account of his religion and alien roots.

Or what about the ascent to the throne of a gentleman with the peculiarly un-British name of Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Kurfürst und Erzbannerträger des Heiligen Römischen Reiches ('George' to his friends)? He was ridiculed by his subjects, the Jacobites hated him, yet he turned out to be an enlightened ruler who helped to introduce cabinet government.

It's politics what brought yer isles together, my friend. And it's politics what'll bring Europe together. In what shape of form this will come about will be the subject of eternal discussion and dissent, but the principle, dictated by necessity as it was in early modern times, seems clear.