The irony is that for smaller weaker countries national sovereignty is probably enhanced by entry into the EU because the rules are setup to make it so at least it is now anyway.

I thinking specifically here of my own country we entered the EU because your own country entered it we had no choice entry to English markets for our goods is too important. However our leaders probably hoped we might be able to remove the last vestiges of economic control the UK had on us by access to an even bigger market.

Course all it really did was increase the trade between us but hey it was a good thing for us at the time and its still pretty good now.

Now the fun part of the ride is over and all the stuff were asked to vote on these days is more technical and quite frankly beyond this mere mortal which is why the NO to Lisbon crowd is having a field day telling lies while at the same the YES side tell us just as big a load of lies.

I hope that the conservative grouping gets down to making the EU work better and not simply blocking I suspect they are there to work as I cannot imagine the UK is seriously considering any nuclear option.

I said it already but strategically the UK cannot allow itself to be outside the decisions in Europe so the UK will continue to have a love hate hate relationship with the EU.