After living 26 years in Romania and 8 years in Ireland I was never faced with the idea that there might be such a thing as too much organisation. In the Far East of Europe chaos and entropy still seem to make the rule and on a small green island you can keep things flexible enough because people can rely on common sense and it will be grand in the end. After living almost two years in France I understand a bit better that rigid schedules for lunch and holidays come from a sometimes unreasonable love of order and organisation. Regardless if tourists go hungry after 2pm, if families spend full days queueing on highways trying to reach their destination, or if fridges get broken during August. The common belief is that people require more organisation although some amount of randomisation would solve the problem just as well.
Strict rules and schedules are seen to have value in and of themself and religiously adhering to them builds character and cultivates patience and persistence if nothing else. But keeping a full country close to boiling point is not without its perils and it is not a rare occurence to see a lady throwing her shopping bag, running and cursing after a driver refused to stop at the street light.
The greatest loss for a European Union without Great Britain might be not having a small dose of British pragmatism in the mix.
