The issue of Europe, which tore the Conservative Party in two, will not go away simply because the Tories are out of office. For it is deeper than politics, and concerns the whole past and future of our country. The habit has arisen of dividing people into “Europhiles” and “Euroskeptics,” and of denigrating the skeptics as “Little Englanders.” The thought seems not to have occurred to those who take charge of our political education that skepticism towards the institutions of the European Union might stem from a love of Europe and a fear of the nationalist enthusiasms which are constantly threatening to destroy its culture. It is especially galling to be told this now, when the French have just voted in droves for their National Front and German youths are once again taking to the streets in search of the “enemy within.” Or are we to conduct this debate as though there were no such thing as history, and no knowledge whatsoever to be gained from studying it?
Conservatives remain committed to the Union, since they regard it as a knot which was tied by history.
Most Euroskeptics are also defenders of the United Kingdom, which grants to the English no Parliament, no sovereign, no army, and no assets of their own, but obliges them to share all these things with the Scots, the Welsh, and a troublesome segment of the Irish. Conservatives remain committed to the Union, since they regard it as a knot which was
