a reason to stay in the European union

European Coal and Steel Community, not Confederation.

Anyway, that was a very long time ago (1950s). The present day EU cannot really be deemed to be a 'direct descendant' of the European Coal and Steel Community. I kind of see what you're getting at, but so much has changed since then. When people last voted on the in / out question, it was for the European Community. The specific question was:

"Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?"

That was a very different proposition to the current EU. There were only 9 members for instance, rather than the present day 27. The electorate were voting for a co-operative economic union, not a political union.

There are some good reasons to remain in the EU, and there are some good reasons for withdrawal too, but that's an entirely different conversation!

 

Well I'm with Tyrone. Being born at the end of WW2 I have lived through it. Whilst some will purport that religion is the cause of most wars, I don't agree. IMHO most wars are the result of human greed, whether it be power, money or domination, etc. The EU generally speaking is about working together and sharing (note I haven't said fair cos this needs tweaking).

 

You have to go back to 1865 for that! The various amendments to the US constitution sorted that issue - i.e. a political solution.

Prior to that you had a divide between north & south & I fear if countries break from the EU you could get a similar situation.
There is an obvious need to renegotiate elements of the EU, but you can only do that from within.

 

The peace has been kept quite simply because of the utter and total defeat of Germany in WW2, and the stand off between Nato and the Warsaw Pact, both sides knowing full well that war could easily lead to mutually assured destruction, the ECSC suggestion doesn't hold water at all when compared to the bigger issues above.
Where the EU has had a possible effect is in moderating the behaviour of nationalism in post communist states...I think there is an argument that the possibility of not gaining EU membership has had a positive effect.

 

Are you sure about that?

Could have sworn there was a slight skirmish in the mid 19th century!

 

There are European countries that are not part of the European Union yet they seem to be living without the threat of war. The EU is not a protective cloak that protects countries from possible war.

 

I think our posts may have crossed. Read back!

 

Not sure about that. Regarding Germany's utter and total defeat, if avoiding future wars were as easy as that then WWII would never have happened in the first place. I think the Cold War certainly had an effect - banding together to fight what's perceived as a bigger evil will always do that - but it's difficult to ignore the increasing economic interdependence between the European Nato states, encouraged and enabled by the EU. This economic interdependence has its downsides (as the euro crisis at the moment is showing), but it effectively takes the possibility of war off the table.

Ha, I know that really. I was just playing - couldn't resist!

 

We'll not leave the EU...All the propaganda the establishment brought into play in the Scottish referendum, will all be rolled out again, losing jobs to Europe, economic suicide and the likes..nar we ain't going anywhere

 

Yes....but you said "never".

And I don't think anything has changed the possibility of that ever happening again, there are groups in certain States that back secession from the union and would be willing to take up arms to do so.

Now, that's not to say I agree with the original poster's premise that the EU is preventing a war, it has certainly helped in the aftermath of WW2 but I don't envisage that the likelihood of Britain being plunged into a European war would increase by coming out of the EU. They are many, many reasons not to leave the EU without coming up with stuff like this. We'll leave the scaremongering to UKIP.