The Reunion, on Radio 4 last Sunday, discussing the Maastricht Treaty, made interesting listening. Available on catchup here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0783m5p
The closing comment from David Davies (a Brexiter) was very good:
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We're different from a number of other countries for the following reasons. The Germans and Italians came in to the original iron and steel community from a dictatorship; the Spaniards came in from Franco; the Portuguese came in from Caetano; the Greeks came in from the colonels; Eastern Europe came in from under the jackboot of Soviet domination. We came in after 150 years of liberal democracy that worked quite well, so our attitude to Europe is not the same as theirs. We believe in our own democracy. They see Europe as the
symbol of a liberal democracy. It's a very different viewpoint.
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We Brits don't see the need for a European Union to protect us from our own state government, whereas many other members do! This is how and why the EU is seen as a force for peace in most of Europe.