Goodbye Britain

[BillyStubbsTears]

This was posted by a reader in the Guardian today, bst has been bashing away making the same point.

20th Century Wars in Europe before EEC/EU (very incomplete list)
1903 Macedonian revolt
1906 Cretan war
1910 Albanian war
1910 Portuguese Civil War
1912 1st Balkan War
1913 2nd Balkan War
1914 1st World War
1916 Irish War of Independence
1918 Russian Civil War
1918 Finnish Civil War
1918 Georgian–Armenian War
1918 Latvian War of Independence
1918 Georgian–Turkish War
1919 Polish-Ukrainian War
1919 Estonian War
1919 Lithuanian War of Independence
1919 Hungarian–Romanian War
1919 Irish War of Independence
1919 Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia
1919 Polish-Czech Teschen War
1920 Georgian–Ossetian War
1920 Armenian–Azerbaijani War
1920 Polish–Lithuanian War
1920 Czechoslovakia–Hungary War
1920 Vlora War (Italy-Albania)
1921 Georgian–Soviet War
1921 Silesian Uprisings
1922 Irish Civil War
1924 Georgian Uprising
1932 Mäntsälä rebellion
1934 Austrian Civil War
1936 Spanish Civil War
1939 Hungarian Invasion of Ukraine
1939 2nd World War
1945 Greek Civil War
1956 Hungarian Revolution

20th Century Wars in Europe outside EEC/EU
1974 Cyprus War
1988 Nagorno-Karabakh War
1991 Ten-Day War (Slovenia)
1991 Croatian War of Independence
1992 Bosnian War
1998 Kosovo War
2001 Macedonian Insurgency
1994 First Chechen War
1997 Albanian Civil War
1998 Six-Day War of Abkhazia
1999 War of Dagestan
1999 Second Chechen War

20th Century Wars in Europe inside EEC/EU
None

That list misses two crucial other examples.

Northern Ireland and the Basque Country both had what were effectively low-level, long-duration civil wars which started before their countries joined the EU, and ended in part because of the structures of the EU.

And there's an equally important point, which is about democracy rather than war. Prior to joining the EU, the following countries had been ruled by military dictatorships (either from internal coups or external invasions) within living memory.

France
Germany
Belgium
Holland
Denmark
Luxembourg
Spain
Portugal
Italy
Greece
Croatia
Slovenia
Czechia
Slovakia
Austria
Hungary
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Romania
Bulgaria

Since joining the EU, every one of those countries has had unbroken democratic rule.

It's the height  of stupidity to not see the link there. Those who blithely criticise the EU for being undemocratic are wilfully ignoring what REAL lack of democracy means.

[Sprotyrover]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7941881/French-firemen-fight-pre-arranged-brawl-ends-TEAR-GAS-deployed.html
Be interesting to see how things pan out in France,Spain, Italy, in the near future not even gonna consider the little fish!

[Axholme Lion]

France, Belgium and Holland military dictatorships?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

[Axholme Lion]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

Well that wasn't exactly down to the French, Belgians and Dutch was it? The EU didn't exist in 1945.

[Sprotyrover]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

Who do you think saved them from terror and tyranny in 1945.

[Muttley]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

Who do you think saved them from terror and tyranny in 1945.

A coalition of nations working together for a common good.

[SydneyRover]

Let me wish you a VERY HAPPY BREXIT DAY Syd.

Why thank you kind sir, I hope you sprot, and AL and a few others will be very happy together 

[Glyn_Wigley]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

Who do you think saved them from terror and tyranny in 1945.

The Americans and the Soviets more than anybody else.

[DonnyOsmond]

It was a Soviet flag flying over Berlin.

[SydneyRover]

It would be interesting have an estimate on the lives and money saved across the ECC/EU with not having wars during it's lifetime so far. Not including the war games going on in Sprots bedroom of course 

[BillyStubbsTears]

Who do you think ruled them from 1940-45?

Well that wasn't exactly down to the French, Belgians and Dutch was it? The EU didn't exist in 1945.

Wooosh.