> [WS:] But that would under the rubric of British insularity, no?
Why would it?
> In the continental Europe it was a bit different, afaict. The left - or taher what
> is left of it - was mostly supportive
The larger, more social democratic, centre-left parties are mostly supportive. There are still quite a number of further-left parties whose attitude towards the EU ranges from strongly critical to outright opposed. And that includes some continental parties, like the Greek Communists and the Danish People's Movement.
A number of these parties have elected representatives in the European Parliament - they are in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) grouping, which currently has 35 seats representing about a dozen different countries, so you can't really describe them as being irrelevant.
>Alas, the old left-right distinctions do not matter much anymore in the EU.
AFAICT, the old bread and butter welfarism found a new champion in nationalists, christian democrats, and even the far-right, one part of what used to be the left is now in cahoots with neoliberals, while the other part is, well, way out in the left field as they say on this side of the pond.
The Irish elections at the end of this month should be interesting. Here the left-right distinction never really mattered much, but the left looks likely to have a real impact this time. It looks as though at least ten seats (out of 166 total) will go left of Labour. And plenty of people would say that's a conservative estimate.