Quote:
Originally Posted by Frenzie
One night when I was in a hotel room in Glasgow, I turned on the TV. (This was close to a decade ago.) There was some British show on, talking about traveling to Europe.
But more on topic, I thought in Europe was meant as in Russia. But apparently not, and I could easily order the device if I wanted to.  |
I flew into Croyden or some such place in about 2006. There was a big sign welcoming visitors from the EU, as if UK wasn't in it.
Queen Elizabeth I invented the idea of England being British. It's said being on the same side as France in WWI and WWII was unusual. UK is geographically a collection of islands off the mainland European coast. Scotland (historic links to Netherlands and France) thinks of itself as European. England, despite the Coup of William of Orange, rarely thinks of itself as European. It depends where you are or who you meet in N.I. or Wales.
Ireland certainly, despite being further away from the mainland, has thought of itself as European for maybe the last 500 years. Certainly it's possible even before Ireland a Nation was a concept (Ireland wasn't a Nation in the sense we think of it now even during the era of the High Kings).
Shipping to Ireland for years now has been about the same price from Germany as the UK. Finding German rather than UK suppliers used to be hard because most manufacturers, possibly since the 17th C., would only supply the Irish market via UK wholesale or UK retail.
Ferry traffic from Wales is halved and direct ferry traffic from the Europe mainland is up x6. In the 16th C. Galway was supplied by Spain and France, but England started enforcing direct trade from England and Wales via Dublin.