Yes, its water under the bridge now, despite what many on here think I did not vote for Brexit, but I understood why people did.
In my generation many recall the that President De Gaulle set the tone, for a long time his response to the UK's application was 'Non' and many believed Edward Heath and his colleagues sold the UK out when we joined. The trouble was the EU concept was never truly accepted in many areas within the UK, perhaps never understood, and De Gaulle's opposition made it difficult for many in the UK to accept, that we did need the EEC as it was then, and they came to need us. According to the British press we seem to constantly be at logger-heads with the EEC, and at one time Jacques Delor also to many seem to go out of his way to make life uncomfortable for the British. I've always taken the view that the EU as an entity and the UK Government, for its own purposes, found it convenient to give the impression they were talking to the back of each others heads.
Opt-outs, rebates, etc. all the other 'bits' we were 'out of' or not fully involved in just serve to widen the gulf. The big mistake was when (ironically two of the biggest Europhiles in Government) Heseltine and Clark stopped/persuaded Thatcher from holding a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty which effectively change the game; had they not done so despite the anti-EU feeling in some quarters in the UK I firmly believe that would have been the defining moment when we where either in or out, both politically and economically and it would a have been the defining victory for remain.
Everything that followed was downhill as far as our involvement in the EU, this aided by Blairs attempts to force us into the euro zone, by adopting the Euro. The buffers were now in place on the track and all it took was Junker to send Cameron away with a flea in his ear, the signals changed, the tracks were moved and the almighty crash loomed. The fat lady will be singing in the not too distant future!
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