54% of voters support David Cameron’s plan to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership and hold an in-out referendum. 27% do not (YouGov/The Sunday Times). 13% say the policy makes them more likely to vote Conservative at the next election; 16% less likely (The Times/Populus)

The reason for the above poll results is the relentless propaganda against the EU by backwoodsmen, mainly in the Tory party and the Murdoch press (always up and ready to damage the country).  Everything that goes wrong is blamed on the EU and every unpopular British government measure is likewise blamed on Brussels. There are people who still cannot absorb the fact that Britain is now a medium-rated power. These are joined by those who just cannot abide foreigners, who resent immigration and want the Poles and others deported. This is a depressing alliance of know-nothings.

Millions have been killed in European wars over the last two thousand years, and particularly those more recent ones, driven by raw nationalism (similar to the rah-rah nationalism of the right wing Tories). We want no more of them.

Whether you like it or not the world is arranged into large blocs – get used to it.  And forget the so-called “special relationship”; it no longer exists. In 19 years of living in the US I have never heard anyone in America refer to it (correction: only once). Indeed, President Obama wants an Atlantic Free Trade area; if Britain leaves the EU it will be excluded from this bloc (which is maybe why Obama is proposing it now?). Britain as a small island outside the EU/US orbit has a dismal chance, with its already plummeting exports and its struggling economy. What on earth do these little Englanders think they are doing?

Epicureans believe in cooperation, personal and international. Deliberately hamstringing your economy and making a whole crowd of exasperated enemies is as far as you can get from the Epicurean ideal.