Abstract

This essay looks at the valid critique British politicians, intellectuals, and academics have voiced about the European Union and how it should be shaped. The essay argues that Europeans ignore at their peril the many thoughtful ideas that are being developed in British think tanks and among politicians by too easily dismissing Britons as "the odd ones out" in Europe who never understood what the project was about in the first place. Written two years before the British EU referendum it warns that ignoring British views might endanger the EU.