I think it started pre-De Gaulle. He was the one who kept saying Non when we applied later AIUI.
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De Gaulle was against us joining - but we had marked ourselves out as not interested when we rejected membership of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. No doubt delusions of imperial grandeur at the time. We also disliked the idea of a supranational authority - well, having picked a stance I suppose we stuck with it right through to the present day - but a bit ironic given that’s exactly what we were to countries which were part of the Empire.
Ultimately I suspect it was always the case that Brits were against anyone trying to tell them what to do - but were OK if it was Britain ordering other nations around.
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"Yes Minister " has a brilliant expose of the Imperial mindset ..and the relevant clips are on Youtube. Sir Humphrey explaining to the Minister gleefully why the UK joined.
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In many ways little has changed except the empire was a long time ago and Britain isn’t the powerhouse any more. But Britain no longer has an attitude that would allow it to rule an empire, and ruling doesn’t work by negotiated consent.
There are opinions, damned opinions, and statistics.
Hi Debby
What about Brits in France losing the right to vote in elections. I consider that quite a loss.
Andy
Or anyone living in the UK.
I think there are people who wrongly believe it is. But I suspect they are in a minority.
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Oh, I don’t know, quite a few grifters have made a very lucrative career on the back of it.
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True, the wealthy ones who voted for BREXIT then pissed off to a tax haven or relocated their businesses to Europe and beyond.
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That is part of Brits emigrating to France loosing out.
The pound is up against the euro which is good for my pension. I suspect the debt crisis in France which in turn impacts on the whole of the EU and the value of the Euro , may have something to do with it.
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It wasn’t an option, de Gaulle was dead against UK membership.
Just noticed others have made the same comment.
I’m not so sure about that?
The UK was taking some part in the talks post war, but was not keen to join. We had our strong Commonwealth at that time, remember.
DeGaulle was not the French President at that time, he was elected in 1959, after the 1951 Treaty of Paris, and 1957 Treaty of Rome.
You may well be right, but that was always my understanding. Though I do believe Churchill wasn’t keen joining either.
AIUI the UK wasn’t keen at all. De Gaulle wasn’t the barrier at the outset, that he was later on.
Exactly. Had we joined the club at the start De Gaulle could not veto. It was after the uk realised the big mistake in not joining that allowed existing members to veto the application.
Indeed as any can now if the Uk does want to rejoin.
You mean as part of De Gaulle’s gratitude for being sheltered in London during the war?
As a person who takes some pride in attempting the correct and accurate use of language I am somewhat embarrassed to admit my failure on this occasion, and I therefore apologise to you and other readers for my error.
When using the word ‘neighbour’ I was attributing it to neighbouring countries rather than to the person residing next door to my home.
I have amended the text of my previous post to make the distinction clearer.
I may have said this before, so apologies if this is repetition. My mother always said that de Gaulle wasn’t particularly popular with the UK military and always wanted to know chapter and verse of British operations.
The military didn’t trust him with the information, so they used to tell him about operations that had already happened. I imagine he found out in the end and wasn’t too happy about us.
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