Is England still part of Europe?
Tribune Content Agency LLC,
by
Victor Davis Hanson
Original Article
Posted By: my stars 22,
9/14/2019 10:02:53 AM
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is desperate to translate the British public's June 2016 vote to leave the European Union into a concrete Brexit. But the real issue is far older and more important than whether 52 percent of Britain finally became understandably aggrieved by the increasingly anti-democratic and German-controlled European Union. England is an island. Historically, politically and linguistically, it was never permanently or fully integrated into European culture and traditions. Source corrected.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
FormerDem 9/14/2019 1:28:00 PM (No. 179809)
just one demur - Hanson calls England a Protestant country and that is not precisely right. It is one of the old ... old... Catholic countries, and among them, the only one that went for Protestantism in any fashion. So the stuff about how Protestantism is their genius is off target imo. (Germany's south,quite old Catholics, stayed Catholic more or less to today, and its North, well, it had only been Catholic for about fifteen minutes anyway, same as the Nordics) imo for the sake of precision it is of note that the English do not exactly see themselves as Protestant in the way for example the Nordics do, and the northern Germans, etc. Many Anglicans see themselves as a different flavor of Catholic. They feel strongly about it. In this as in so many other things, England is a bridge between irreconcilables, it is not a puzzle piece that can be easily dropped into either basket. In this I think Hanson is off target. England is quite the fractal in complexity
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Reply 2 - Posted by:
bad-hair 9/14/2019 1:39:43 PM (No. 179820)
Never was. What a stupid question.
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Reply 3 - Posted by:
HPmatt 9/14/2019 1:49:30 PM (No. 179832)
I like Victor’s analysis - England proceeds back on its own independent course, or It sinks under the EU waves. I think BoJo trying to do EU-lite - a modified Teresa May EU deal w relaxed Irish backstop; otherwise he would join forces w Nigel Farage’s Brexiteers and do a Hard Brexit on 31October.
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
Smart11344 9/14/2019 1:52:25 PM (No. 179839)
When I was in grade school, Englad was my favorite foreign country. I don't remember why, but that was it for me.
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Reply 5 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 9/14/2019 7:14:46 PM (No. 180057)
Having learned a great deal of the true history of the Christian Church once I left the RCC, I concur with #1. The Anglican Catholic Church, according to legend, was there when St Augustine sent missionaries and has been fiercely independent even through the Great Schism (which is NOT when Henry VIII decided to get a divorce).
It is only recently because of the chaos of the 20th century that Great Britain ever really reluctantly considered themselves connected to the Continent, much less a part of it. England has always been England. I think we are seeing that the English are ready to abandon the idea of being lumped in with them. I hope they make it. It is because of the socialist deprivations in their culture that they have been brought low.
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Reply 6 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 9/14/2019 9:00:13 PM (No. 180097)
There is no need to knuckle under to the rest of Europe. Switzerland is certainly part of Europe, but also goes its own way. They don't use the Euro either. Perhaps those Swiss bankers have secrets that Euroweanies would prefer to remain a secret.
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Reply 7 - Posted by:
Faithfully 9/14/2019 9:42:27 PM (No. 180117)
England was never considered nor considered itself part of Europe.
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
Zarin 9/14/2019 11:11:48 PM (No. 180171)
No, I never thought of England (&) Scotland, Wales, Cornwall & Ireland as part of Europe. Who else east of there had anything like the Magna Carta? Britain is (are) an island - and the Great Boar is it's totem. Hmmm! Hanson, tho' is worth the read.
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The legacy of England to the rest of the English-speaking world in contrast to the negative legacies of of most EU countries brilliantly described. It all comes down to this.