No one was more surprised than I. The first taxi--well, he was a car service driver, same difference--volunteered this in his own words: "I consider myself a European first, and British second," and he further stated that most of his co-workers did the same. Thereafter, I specifically asked that question and was quite surprised at the many affirmative answers I got from people in a variety of jobs. Interested to hear Tallulah's viewpoint on Euro vs. British.

As with anything, it is hard to generalize. I have some friends in London and we visit each other back and forth and they tell me they feel much more at home in the US then in France or Germany and think it is more important for Britain to retain its special relationship with the US, if indeed one ever such existed.

Others have picked up a degree of anti Americanism ever since Tony Blair marched Britain into the Iraqi war (they're still waiting for the WMD) and certainly that hurt him in the recent election but not enough to cost him his job. And Blair, they tell me, is in favor of closer relationships with Europe. Also many economists feel it is inevitable that Britain will be forced to adopt the single currency but then again my friends and their parents tell me that they are adamantly opposed as if you lose control of your own currency, you can't be a great power. And they don't particularly want decisions regarding British interest rates and tax policies to be made in Brussels, Frankfurt or Paris.

Also some older people have complained bitterly about having the metric system thrust on them by the powers that be in Brussels although for the time being distances are still measured in miles...

Again, obviously I don't live there and it really shouldn't be any of my business or concern. But I will tell you a funny sort of story.

About a year or two ago, I was coming into London on a flight from Frankfurt. Now Britain is not a party to the conventin that allows no hassle travel between various countries in the EU (I can't remember the long Durch name of the accord) so it was onto passport control. And the queue was a mile long as a flight from Ghana had just landed and there were lots of young people who had employment certificates meaning the immigration officials had to spend 10 to 15 minutes with each one to verify whatever. Anyway, EU citizens and citizens of Switzerland are allowed to go through special lanes where all they have to do is show their identity cards or passports (just what do the Brits do with all those landing cards we fill out anyway, but then again everybody has to fill out a US customs declaration so who am I to complain)...anyway the queue was moving very very clowly. Behind me on the queue were a couple of Canadians who had travelled to London from Singapore with German friends. The Germans were long since through immigration and came back downstairs to see what was happening. This Canadian guy yelled out, can you believe it. Here I am a member of the commonsealth and I have to wait on this queue while the Germans, age old enemies of Britain go right through. What kind of system is this?

kwsl wrote: <i>...beginning with our trip in 2002 (post EU)...</i>

Although the term &quot;European Union&quot; was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty in November 1993, the history of European integration goes back to the time after WWII, 1948 or so. So yes - you are right, 2002 is &quot;post EU&quot;. I think the UK joined up about 1973.

What did you mean by that comment?

This wandering way off topic, but as far as most people in Britain were concerned - especially those in the political elite who seemed keenest on European integration (particularly Churchill) - integration was for the rest of Europe, not Britain, at least until the 1960s. And ever since it's mostly been seen as something instrumental/technical rather than an end in itself.

funny story xyz. indeed, UK's relationships with other countries can be very complex. Like the &quot;british national overseas&quot; passport offered to citizens of hong kong...virtually worthless in britain itself!!!

Nimrod, I meant post EURO, the changeover in currency. Not very clear, I'm afraid.

That's a great story, XYZ!

And some of us are still waiting in the US for the WWD, too.

&quot; Germany is somewhat more like America than is Britain.&quot;

Having lived in Germany, I agree that Germany is more like the US than anyplace but the UK. It's hardly surprising since, much of British speech and culture originates from Germanic conquorers. Anyone who speaks Germans knows there many of the words are the same as English and especially old English - strand for shore, etc. Further, the largest ethnic group in America is German.

&quot;Speaking of misinformed, perhaps you need a refresher in the Fodors FAQ's for posting. There is no separate UK Board. All comments are posted to the European forum. Selecting a country only feeds the clunky and ineffective search feature.&quot;

You need a logic refresher. Then why does Fodor offer the option of posting to a country specific board? Putting a post on country specific board puts in on the general board but not vice versa. I wanted it on the country specific board.

Anyother petty attack shot down. Go away until you can do better.

Imhornet: I'm sensing some anger coming from your direction...! :-)

There is no country specific board. You can check that out yourself by searching under a specific country for the most recent posts and then by searching the entire Europe board. You will see that the same posts appear. This is something that is not clear to most people until they have been using this board for a while. If you choose a country when composing your message, then it will show up in a search under that country later, but it will also show up when you browse the entire Europe board, which is how most people actually use it. Therefore, if you post once under a country and once without specifying a country, your post will appear twice to most people.

What IS this tempest in a teapot STILL doing here??????

Maybe people want to see Imhornet's head explode.

&quot;There is no country specific board. You can check that out yourself by searching under a specific country for the most recent posts and then by searching the entire Europe board. You will see that the same posts appear. This is something that is not clear to most people until they have been using this board for a while.&quot;

You still don't get it. Try to focus here. If you post to a specific country, it shows up on the general board, but not vice versa. This means that, say, people planning a UK trip and want only to view mesages on the UK country-specific board will never see a message posted to the general board. This is why you have to option to post to Europe in general or to a specific country when you start a thread.

What is clear to me is that you have no understanding of how this board works.

&quot;mhornet: I'm sensing some anger coming from your direction...!&quot;

That is understandable since stupid people often get angry when confronted with someone who knows what he is talking about.

Imhornet calls himself stupid!

A triumph of quick posting over careful reading!

The stylish insult is always better when not directed at oneself.