Mason deals with that in the first paragraph. And yes, one of the reason I have been so in favour of the EU is that it acted as a counter to Whitehall.

But what many in the rest of europe do not realise are the resentments stirred up by Whitehall which are blamed on Brussels. On so many occasions we hear the bleats of the "patriots" complaining about some multi-volume set of mandatory regulations and procedures "imposed by Europe", that are in fact a Whitehall interpretation of short guidance note.

then the "patriots" complain that "they just ignore this in France and Italy, it's not fair". To which you could point out that, of course they ignore it in France and Italy, because it's a guidance note. But tbh, facts don't have much force against the emotive head of steam.

These people are British libertarian tea party types, all the prejudice but with no shred of ideology.

Really, they don't like any government at all. Europe, UK, even local council. They'll put up with UK conservatives who, to some extent share the same prejudices. But they're not in favour.

So, you'll always have people moaning about Brussels and making up stories about their controlling bureaucracy, because they made the same complaint when it was just the UK govt. But it was Whitehall then and it's Whitehall now.

And that's not to really talk about those who just don't like non-white non-English people having anything to do with running England. The people who didn't even like it when the last Labour Cabinet was largely composed of Scots.

keep to the Fen Causeway