Few in Britain are paying much attention to the anti-British vitriol among European leaders and how it might be manifested in coming weeks and months.
Britain has been sparring with Europe ever since it joined the European Community in 1973. Last Friday, the tempestuous relationship changed for good when Prime Minister David Cameron landed a haymaker on Germany and its allies.

The gloves are now off, the fight is real, the hatred genuine.

In Britain—where politicians and the media are celebrating Mr. Cameron’s show of strength, and the consensus is that the nation is wisely distancing itself from a collapsing edifice—this new reality has yet to sink in. Few, it appears, are giving much thought to the frustration and rage set off in Europeans—and how this welling anti-British sentiment might manifest itself in the coming weeks and months.

Since Mr. Cameron’s announcement last Friday, Europe’s media and politicians have reacted with regular barrages of impish caricatures, harsh criticisms, and even veiled threats. Perhaps the most public outlet for the rage has been in the European Parliament. Conservative mep Daniel Hannan was in Parliament this week and reported on the scene.
“I wish I could adequately convey the intensity of the anti-British feeling in the European Parliament,” he wrote. “In today’s debate on last week’s Brussels summit, speaker after speaker rose to denounce our entire nation as selfish, narrow-minded and arrogant. … You needed to be present, to hear the yowling and shrieking and desk-banging that accompanied every Anglophobic utterance.”

Europe has other means of making life uncomfortable for Britain too. For example, European corporations, many of which are simply extensions of national governments, own a disconcerting number of Britain’s strategic assets and resources.
BAA (formerly British Airports Authority), owner of Heathrow Airport, is owned by the Spanish Ferrovial group.
Arriva, which operates a large number of Britain’s bus and train services, is owned by Deutsche Bahn.
edf Energy is one of Britain’s largest gas and electricity firms, and is owned by the French government via the state-owned edf sa.
Npower, another electricity firm, is owned by the German energy giant rwe.
Even the car division of Rolls Royce is owned by Volkswagen and BMW.
Just last weekend, the Sunday Times reported that German state-owned company dfs is bidding for the British government’s stake in Britain’s air traffic control company.

“The British cheque … is now up for question,” stated European People’s Party leader Joseph Daul on Tuesday. “Tax monies should be spent on someone else rather than compensating selfish nationalism.”
Asked if he was declaring financial war, Daul haughtily responded: “There will be no tanks, no Kalashnikovs before Christmas.”

It’s also obvious that European officials have already figured out how to make Britain pay for its actions. Rebecca Harms, leader of the European Greens, warned that Britain’s “selfish strategy” for protecting London as financial hub “cannot be tolerated any longer.” European Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn agreed. If Mr. Cameron’s decision to veto the plan was “intended to prevent bankers and financial corporations of the City from being regulated, that’s not going to happen,” he warned.
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