The UK was in the union for 47 years! It dawned on me that there are middle aged Brits that have always been under the flag of the EU and never truly British Citizens, they never knew anything else! Hell, I remember when they got in!
No wonder there has been so much resistance to Brexit. The devil you know and all that.
I’ve seen episodes of Benny Hill joking about the European Common Market.
Actually, the UK was in the Common Market (European Economic Community, EEC) for 47 years: the EEC didn’t turn into (get absorbed by) the European Union until 1993. Britain joined the EEC in 1973, under PM Edward Heath, a “Conservative” traitor.