All good points. However, it's important to remember that France remains at the core of the EU, and has her own nuclear weapons (force de frappe) and large mil

All good points. However, it's important to remember that France remains at the core of the EU, and has her own nuclear weapons (force de frappe) and large military. There was always a tension between UK participation with EU diplomatic/military initiatives, and UK alignment with the Anglophone world for military and intelligence cooperation: US leadership and fives eyes intelligence cooperation with US, Canada, Australia & NZ. The US/UK "special relationship" is a cliche much favoured by British politicians, but it does have real substance in the close military and intelligence cooperation. Of the world's five official nuclear weapons states, only one of them buys rather than builds - the UK buys the Trident missile system from the US. The warheads are of course UK manufactured with plutonium from our nuclear power stations. The UK was the first country to build nuclear power stations in the 50s. Propoganda at the time was all about clean cheap electricity. But their ultimate purpose was to generate plutonium for weapons.