Bruno Behrends wrote:Or the Ukrainian crisis may let them rediscover the reasons for the EUs existence.
With the right to travel all over the continent without passport, to study in any member country, live in any member country seemingly having become taken for granted the EU seemed to be stale and old news.
Ukraine, thanks to Mr. Putin, suddenly is shaking the Europeans out of their lethargy and showing them why every eastern country tries to flock into the EU. And what it means to be safely under its umbrella instead of under Russian influence.
Or it might have the opposite effect, in the UK at least. The BBC has been doing a set of reports in the run up to the election. It's interesting to see that people don't have that good an idea of what the EU actually does, or how much it affects everyday life here. It's not as huge as that idiot Farage makes out, but the reaction is mixed, at best, when the average person finds out how much EU rules affect the UK.
The British public's aloof and isolationist tendency with regards to Europe means trying to get them to think rationally about it is difficult. There's too much of a knee-jerk anti "Johnny Foreigner" reaction, especially in some areas of the South of England.
What makes me laugh is the fact people are anti-immigration, but forget it's the immigrants that do the jobs the natives now consider beneath them. If immigration was stopped, how many would be willing to work as a cleaner, an au pair or any other low paid or "dirty" job?
Not many, I'd bet.
Mike.
