[user104658]

Comparing "life before the EU" to now is meaningless because globalisation and neoliberalism came post-eu. We could argue until the EU beef comes home about what role the EU plays in that, of course, but it doesn't really matter much - the important thing to point out is that the global economy, and even moreso the British economy, doesn't function in an even remotely similar way today as it did pre-80's so "how stuff was before" is totally irrelevant.