Chris

The European mindset is to regulate and harmonise everything. The reasons why are complex, but some of the factors include the European Commission being modelled on the French civil service, which is far more activist than our own (their parliament is also rather weaker, plus they have an executive president) and the fact that most of Europe has been governed by, or invaded by (in some cases both) a nasty dictator within living memory, from which perspective the limiting of the power of national governments seems like quite a sensible idea.

For ourselves, well we had a global empire - again, more or less within living memory - and have bequeathed the world our language, which helps to sustain our understanding of our place in the world. Much about our trade patterns had to change, quickly, in order to fit us into the common market, which is part of the reason why many Brexiteers are so confident that our trade patterns will relatively easily snap back into their natural shape once we’re out.