Have just glanced at an article headed “Blair steps up fight to be crowned first ‘President of EU’” (here). And I am reminded of something that happened at Davos last January: He was introduced, by somebody, as “one of the most dynamic European leaders,” or something like that. And, when he got to the microphone, Blair said, “First, thank you for calling me a ‘European.’”
My thought: I’d rather be a Briton, or an Englishman, than European. I’d rather be a Frenchman or an Italian too, for that matter. And everyone knows why the term “European” was invented (so to speak) in the first place: to give Germans something to call themselves other than “German.”
Anyway . . .
P.S. When I was growing up, if you asked someone where he was from, and he said, “Europe,” he was always, always, always German. May be different now . . .