Britain and the Continent - Vernon Bogdanor

The first lecture seeks to contrast Britain and the Continent in terms of history and institutions, contrasts emphasised by the Second World War. The effect of these contrasts was that Britain would be required to undergo a greater degree of adjustment than any of the countries of the Continent were she to seek to join the European enterprise.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and...
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[@atwali]

The most coherent explanation of UK's relationship with Europe I have yet heard. Very enlightening. Thanks again GC and Prof Bognador. I look forward to the rest of the series.

[@cartmann227]

Lack of flexibility is sold as a virtue by the British

[@exildoc]

Still the view on constitutional peculiarities turns a blind eye on the mighty press in the past decades and the less defined influence via the internet of today. These forces, unaccountable and unelected , have the power to build and to destroy political careers and to form and deform the opinion of the peoples.

[@johnries5593]

So what is to be done about it? State controlled media and censorship seem to work worse, not better. Maybe media critics should focus on competing instead of whining.

[@johnries5593]

46:00 He put his finger on what I have always disliked about the British parliamentary system. It seems to me that parliaments should be policy making bodies, rather than either interparty councils or ratification bodies.

[@BattlestarZenobia]

Every time he says 'Splended Isolation' I think stupidly with a head burried in the sand like an Ostrich

[@mr.bob4630]

Very interesting lecture with lots of ideas I hadn't thought much about before. Very intriguing and very well presented.

[@GoodVideos4]

Oh well, there are also countries on the continent who don't want to be part of the European Union, e.g. Norway. One can for instance compare their reasons to Britain's.

[@thomasjamison2050]

You can't make everyone happy all the time, but I do think Europe might just have a chance to do better than two world wars.

[@DianaStitching]

Brilliant as usual

[@GoodVideos4]

Oh well, there are also cultural and character differences generally between those of Britain and those of the continent.

[@GoodVideos4]

Regarding defence of India against Russia - Russia had always wanted access to the warm Indian Ocean, due to its ports freezing in winter. That's also a reason why it invaded Afghanistan in 1989. They would have then gone onto Pakistan. Oh well, should try make peaceful agreements with them.

[@dariowiter3078]

The Afghan war began for Russia in 1979, dummy! 😠😠😠😠😠

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

What's the next lecture then?

[@RonJohn63]

The link to this lecture at the Gresham College web site has a link to the whole series of lectures. You can then search for them on YT.

[@MrTheaceman]

Britain and the Continent - Vernon Bogdanor Britain Earth Gaea Britain and the Continent - Vernon Bogdanor

[@GoodVideos4]

No commitments, no troops on the continent. What about Gibraltar?

[@dariowiter3078]

Or the Falkland for that matter?

[@MrBlueSky1978]

A very good lecture although Mr Bogdanor doesn't address the basic issue of whether a federal European superstate is fundamentally a good idea in the first place, either for the continental European countries or for the UK.

[@RonJohn63]

Right. Because, as he mentioned, that's not the topic of the lecture...

[@RonJohn63]

However, the discussion of recent continental sovereignty which starts around 39:00 and that of continual British sovereignty since 800 and 325 year Parliamentary Monarchy which goes from 40:25 to 44:38 seems to implicitly argue why the EU is reasonable for Europe but not for Britain. Heck, all the way through 52:22 discusses how completely different the British conception of government is from that of Europe.

England and the US both suffer from the same problem, propaganda instead of history classes.

[@thomasjamison2050]

Real history is an unintended lie. Propaganda is an intendedl lie.