When it comes to power Britian has been feeling the pinch, ever since the haydays of the British empire we've been loosing control, powr and standing in the world.

Our last two long standing prime ministers have attempted to take us into the United States Empire, believing they will share their power with us.

At the same time Europe wants the UK to be a more intergrated member so the EU can be a far more powerful allied block of nations for ecconmic as much as political clout,

So we know Britian can't go it alone against China, India, America or event the rest of Europe. so should we join the EU or the USA?

my two cents: don't join the USA. But I'm not a citizen so I don't really know the best plan of action. I have a feeling the EU is a better choice.

The sooner England joins Europe in some form of federated Europe the better in my opinion.

Hopefully this will stimulate discussion but we should do away with national parliament also.

Will not happen for a good twenty or thirty years maybe....

we should join the EU tbh, america is been on a spiral of self importance for the past 8 years and is now unwilling to listen to any country that doesnt agree with it 100%, the EU has many flaws too, (the euroto name one) but they are the better option. having said that, we still need a national parliament, to counter the stream of garbage legislation that comes out of brussels, the human rights act to name one, which stops the police arresting known criminals. and the ability to stop mass immigration, protectionism is needed to a degree, at least until all members of the EU are on a roughly equal economic and cultural footing.

I once wrote about my disillusionment with the EU, but then I followed that up some time later with exactly what I thought about the United States.

Overall, I have to go with the EU. It's the lesser of two evils.

While it is true that the United Kingdom cannot stand on her own, the European Union is not the answer. One of the United Kingdom's strength is its culture and heritage, which is far more closely shared in the United States, Canada, and Australia than in France or Turkey.

well i for one disagree, while we share very little culture with turkey, our culture (dare i say ir) share a lot with the germans and french, so much so that cultural historians have questioned whether our problem with the french throught the centuries is BECAUSE we are so similar, and therefore have lots of command ground to compete for superiority over.
Whilst i beleive we should retain our culture, ie keep the pound and retain national parliament, the economic and social benefits of the Eu are needed.
As rhapsody said though, its a case of the less of two evils, as the eu is far from perfect. its just that the States are far less perfect again.

well, incase you don't know we are a member of the EU. Heath put it to a vote in 72 or 73. he lied and said it was only about free trade, not politics, but knew it was heading for European unity and a European Constitution.

it's because of the EU the UK has lost so much - when the UK joined the EEC she had to give up all her old trading links to the commonwealth, and give up a huge amount of fishing rights as well as pay for French farming - CAP, that's what Thatcher was on about when she said "we want our money back" she got it too, but Blair gave it back again 2/3 years ago.

does anyone know why we need the EU? what's wrong with there being independent countries in Europe that have a trade agreement within their boarders? why does there have to be a superstate? (BTW England will never join the euro, our economy isn't compatible with the rest of Europe)

the EU started out as a coal and steel treaty between France and Germany (and 4 other countries) the reason for it was coal and steel was/is??? the material for war, it was to stop another war. the political climate has changed now so there's no need for the EU!

does anyone know which European government hasn't been able to account for any of the money it's spent in the last 12 or so years? have a guess.

i like the US, but the UK doesn't need to become the 51st state lol. i'm sure none of the recent PMs thought so too.

lol just have a look at the EU home page, it's just a complete joke.
Europa - The European Union On-Line

God i wish i'd paid more attention to some of the stupid things it gets up to.

we don't have the euro in the UK so i'm not familiar with it, but i heard this - when you look at a country's money it has something the country is rightly proud of; look at a euro and it has made up places. also, the stars on the flag don't stand for anything. that's got to tell you something - the whole thing is a sham!

According to the EU site, the "number of stars is fixed, twelve being the symbol of perfection and unity."

EUROPA - The symbols of the European Union - Graphical specifications

Also, Wikipedia states, "just like the twelve signs of the zodiac represent the whole universe, the twelve gold stars stand for all peoples of Europe – including those who cannot as yet take part in building up Europe in unity and peace."

European flag - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for my opinion, the UK should definitely consider joining the EU instead of fighting it. The US has been digging a deep hole, something I have discovered in my travels. I think the UK might want to start thinking about getting some distance between Washingon and London.

If Britain moves more to joining the EU then the USA would have a harder time starting pointless wars. If Britain stands by itself, it will lose money because they won't have a huge 300 million+ people market which allows economies of scale.

as the population increses the woulds econamy will become more and more unstable becose of incresed demand for products/oil. and wen the oil runs out or a ice age is trigerd most of the population will probaly die becose people never plan for the worst

Without Britain to give them some legitimacy, the USA governments wouldn't have been able to invade Iraq or Afganistan on false premises, just to protect their oil industries. USA foreign policy would have only the support of Israel and of a few puppet governments around the world, making it harder to justify to the population of the USA and to the united nations.
Britain should move towards a stronger EU - not only because the EU needs a strong Britain, but also because the USA government sees Britain as a convenient lackey, not as a ally.

Well look at what tying ourselves with the USA has got us - into a war which most people in the UK opposed. A million people went for a walk to show their distaste for the war but it was ignored.

Maybe if we realise that geographically and historically we have a much stronger tie with the EU than the USA we would realise that it would be more beneficial for us to be a full member of the EU - rather than the quasi-member state of affairs we have at the moment (we cherry pick, which means we never get to see the full advantage of the entire scheme).

The labour government has been one of indecision - Tony Blair has not had the backbone to take up a solid position on too many things, such as the EU.

I we do join the single currency, we have to make sure that our currency is valued correctly at the start so that we don't go through the mess that Germany went through by overvaluing theirs...

The thing that worries me is that there is a select group of britians who honestly believe Europe has damaged our country. after all trade relations with the common weath were falling apart before the EU, not much to give up to get trading status with some of the richest nations on earth (part from us and japan)

It seems a shame to outcast ourselves through arrogance.

I think us in the UK don't like Europeans (because we don't like the French and Europeans don't shave their armpits). That's basically the end of the story.

We like Americans because they do great films and music and now we have loads of hambuger stores with french? fries and coffee shops (because we're so sophisticated now).

Does it really matter which way we go (it will always be with America)? Both America and Europe are on the wane. Check out the history of the Roman Empire, the writing is on the wall.

you do know you don't have to be a member of the EU to have the trading rights we have now, don't you?

the EU is only about building a European superstate, that means Europe will be one country with joint European defence and foreign policies. it only makes sense if you think we need to be ruled by Europeans instead of the British.

it seems the history of our country doesn't mean much to most people and they don't much care if power shifts from Westminster to Brussels. so, i suppose we'll get what we deserve.

i've got friends who know nothing about the EU and think "oh, it sounds quite nice being a European, so why not?" they know nothing about the history of the EU.

BTW, it's the EU that hasn't accounted for any of the money it's spent for years and years. go and check the European Court of Auditors if you don't believe me

The EU is not a defense organization, that's what NATO and the UN are for. Although i have issue with the vetoes that the permanent members of the UN security council have, maybe the EU should be a defensive organization?

The UK joining the USA, as the 51st state?! It would never happen, and i don't see how it could. I also don't see how the EU could be brought together as one federated nation due to the diversity of languages. Language is usually what defines the borders of a country, what would be the official language and religion? Certainly the UK should not avoid Europe for the simple reason of clinging to old imperialist believes of independence and pride but issues such as whether or not to adopt the Euro should be considered by experts and economists on an individual basis.

edit: I need to know more about political science before i start commenting on the structure of NATO/EU/UN/USA. Ask me in a couple of years when I've worked out what I think

it's about time that Britain realised it is only a small place in a big world and stopped thinking about itself as some sort of influential worldly-wise superpower. the empire is long gone. the US use Britain as a lapdog, and Britain moans with a petted lip about the EU.

imo, Britain should concentrate more on it's own people, their standards of living, hopes and aspirations, and leave the US to the US, and instead of putting down and sniping, take a more positve role in forming the EU into a better and more accountable body for the betterment of both Britain and the other countries of the EU.

U.S. is digging its shit pit, and UK is better off without US. So far, I don't know why exactly doesn't England join the EU. Besides, EU stands for European Union. Guess which continent UK is in?

Extreme Coder