General rule of thumbs for the UK....or General Rules of Thumb for the UK:
1 - We dislike France
2 - We dislike the EC (European Community - that is, The EU)
3 - We like Polish people 'cos they sound funny and are decent plumbers.
4 - We apparently also dislike Polish people 'cos they take all the jobs the same lazy British slobs who dislike them can't be arsed to do. "They're taking all our jobs but we don't want to work as we like living off the st sta sta states" (illiterate boons).
5 - We like Norway....well, at least I do. They're not in the EC, although I like Norway for other reasons.
Now for some more serious reasons. The UK government has a tendancy to accept and follow any laws that the EU creates. At the same time, other countries have a tendancy to accept but not follow the same laws.
For example, there are a limitless number of laws regarding the fishing industry. British fishermen follow these laws which has caused a slump in their already struggling industry.
At the same time, the French and Spanish fishermen completely ignore these laws (some of which were created to allow a sustainable future for the industry).
One of these laws regard where fisherment from each nation can fish. The UK fisherment (on the whole; I don't doubt there are exceptions) stick to their designated area, whilst we get spanish INVADING (omg its teh armada) our areas.
Meh, I hate the French and Spanish.
