+1 to Col's comment, but in the interests of balance...
Winston Churchill (Liberal and then Tory) proposed a united Europe in order to prevent any country suffering the same as Germany under Hitler, and the rest of Europe too.
Harold Wilson (Labour) promoted that view and facilitated much of the original treaty that created the European Community.
Ted Heath (Tory) held the referendum that took us into Europe and signed us up to the original European Act.
Margaret Thatcher (Tory) signed the Maastricht Treaty that gave us the European Working Directive, the Human Rights Act and the current balance of payments into and out of the EU.
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair (Labour) did bugger all to change any of that, they just carried on as the four previous Prime Ministers had before them. If they are guilty of anything, it is masterly inactivity where Europe is concerned.
So, just how can Blair and Brown be to blame for our position in Europe?
Gordon Brown's crimes against this country are manifest and plentiful, but selling the gold reserves was waaaayyyyy down the list. Top of my list was the taxing of share dividends paid into pension funds. Raking in £20bn a year on that little jaunt has cost us, people who have pensions, something north of £200bn in lost pension payments over our lifetimes. Second on my list was his idiotic attitude to the financial sector with his belief that the days of boom and bust were over. The complete lack of regulation of the financial sector was one of many reasons that we are where we are.
As for the money we pay to Europe, our net contribution is about £4bn. What with the rebate we get back, and the funding we receive for infrastructure projects that is not subject to our Government's political interference, it pales into insignificance compared to the £31bn a year in interest we have to pay on our current loans. Which, again, brings us back to those bloody bankers!
Sorry to let some facts get in the way of a good story...
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