There is a huge difference between the attitude of nations like Germany or Luxembourg to the EU and a country like the UK. Much of the discussion within the EU is about such things as roads crossing EU borders, tolls on EU roads, railways crossing EU borders, rivers crossing EU borders (and pollution and water use therein), and various other border related issues. The EU has been a useful place for such discussions (sometimes very heated) to take place, but here in the UK we are mostly unaware of this. We don’t have any shared borders, and we aren’t much interested in other people’s border strife.

For many EU citizens living in smaller countries like Luxembourg, the EU and free movement of people provide a massive opportunity to get out of a small pond and seek new job opportunities elsewhere. In the UK we have a very varied economy with a vast range of different opportunities and those that wish to leave to seek new experiences prefer to move to another English-speaking country – emigrating to an EU country is never really considered to be an option except for sun-seeking retirees who have always had the freedom to move to Spain.

Frankly, while other nations do get a lot out of the EU, the UK doesn’t. We don’t need them and they don’t really need us getting in the way.