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The EEC and the EU are not the same thing. 2004 was the year Blair opened the borders to Eastern Europe which had a major effect on the lives of the English working class.
Does a 38% turnout not indicate a lack of legitimacy?
I'm not sure i've ever met anybody who is pratriotic and Pro-EU.
I would argue new labour were fairly anti-English.
Agreed, up until the the EU allowed millions of people to march in through schengen.
First of all, the reputation of the Poles and other Eastern Europeans as hard working the is completely overblown and is a good indication that they have never worked in industry in England. Anecdotally, the major difference between a Polish forklift driver and an English one is the Polish ones don't look back when they're reversing. And when you get to the other Europeans (Romanians, Bulgarians, etc), trying to get any work out of them at all is difficult, often they will pretend they don't speak English, even when you have had a conversation with them before.
Second of all, law abiding? ehhhh, maybe. They don't tend to commit too much violent crime, and most of it is "mutual combat".
Third of all, White working class people don't care if the people who are replacing them are culturally Christian.
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