The Brits and EU

I really admire the British attitude towards the EU! Now, mind you, that what I admire is not exactly the Euro-scepticism, is more that British think about European problems. And, even better, when trying to come up with answers they regard EU with an extremely pragmatic view: they see the EU as a mean to favour UK and not as an end in itself.
Today Nick Clegg is in the Parliament answering questions posed by some more Euro-sceptic members of the governmental coalition parties. It is true that some of the suggestions of the Euro-sceptics of these Islands are quite absurd. To start with they tend to want all the benefits of a single market without its obligations considering that us, the other Europeans, would be more than willing to concede that. Also, they don't realize that a single market needs single market rules, otherwise in matters of environment, labour or tax, there will be a race to the bottom by the member states to make their products and services competitive.
But if some of the suggestions are absurd, others are quite obvious. Why are EU organs increasing their expenditure when many member states are facing budget cuts? This is a specially relevant question for the Euro-zone, given proposals to give Brussels budget supervisory powers over member states. Are the extremely detailed regulations really necessary to achieve a single market? Is the principle of subsidiarity to be forgotten? This question is an obvious one in a country that prides itself of its Democratic institutions and regards the growing interference of Brussels as weakening the power of Westminster.
To sum this up, the British do what few people in the "Continent" do: they discuss the EU, its objectives, policies, strengths, weaknesses, etc.. As in most discussions, there are a few bad ideas... But at least there are ideas.