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Eu'ro'pho'bia n A strong fear, found chiefly among the British, that giving more power to The European Union spells doom
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By J.F.O. MCALLISTER | London |
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Posted Sunday, June 1, 2003; 14.38BST
Only a lawyer could love its 148 arid pages. When the draft European Constitution was released last week by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and his 105-member Convention on the Future of Europe, the Continental press just yawned. Across the English Channel, however, the world looked very different. Many London headlines were of a size normally reserved for nuclear war, and not much calmer. the end of our nation, screamed the Sun; the eu bonfire of our freedoms, thundered the Daily Mail, which is campaigning to force Tony Blair to call a referendum on the constitution. Some of this was a familiar populist show to sell tabloids: bash those foreigners. But as Blair jetted to Poland, Russia and the G-8 summit in Evian last week, trying to stitch up the wounds of the Atlantic alliance and reintroduce Britain as a good member of the European family, the commentary was a sign of something deeper: the return of Europe as the third rail of British politics, with awkward consequences not just for Blair, but for Britain and the rest of Europe too.
Next week the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, will announce his long-awaited verdict on joining the euro: Not yet. No one expects a referendum before the next parliament. Polls show about two-thirds of Britons want to stay out this signature project of European integration. There are good economic arguments against, but they aren't driving the opposition. Nick Sparrow, managing director of the polling company ICM, puts it bluntly: "The immediate gut reaction of British people to Europe is 'They hate us, therefore we hate them.'"
The bitter debate over Iraq didn't create this outlook. It has old, deep roots: the instinct of an island nation whose empire forged enduring ties with countries beyond its immediate neighbors; a history whose climactic moments were seeing off the French dictator Napoleon and the German dictator Hitler. World War II in particular still tugs on national identity. "People in this country still think, and in many ways they're right, that they had a rather glorious Second World War, and most European countries had a rather shameful one," says Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform in London. "It makes them rather reluctant to mingle." Michael Ancram, the Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary, says that because of the Commonwealth and the special relationship with the U.S., "we've never felt like we've only had one home." Continental countries "feel more comfortable with fortress Europe than we do because we want to continue to move within those associations. We've always felt ourselves European, but slightly different European."
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