Why do people in the UK often pretend they're not in Europe?

[Kantor]

We all realise that Britain is part of Europe. But like everyone has said, it's an island nation. It's more detached from the EU than most other European countries, the currency is still different, many of the traditions are still traditionally British, and unlike the only other large island nation Iceland, the UK is a large and powerful country which held its own before the formation of the EU, and has stronger ties to America than any other country in Europe, really.

None of this would be relevant, of course, without the island part. It's because of the detachment from the EU that we don't use the Euro, not the other way around.