After months of tantric teasing, the European question reached a messy and divisive climax this morning, with Cameron promising an in or out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU if the Conservatives win the next election.
But should we stay or should we go? Huff Post UK has compiled a list of reasons to help you make your mind up ahead of 2017.
From food to fashion, will you be saying So Long Farewell or Let's Stay Together?
Our French cousins over at Le Huffington Post France have also contributed to the EU discussion, coming up with a list of reasons they would like us to stay (and leave) the European Union. Flick through the second slideshow for their controversial replies.
EU
EU MAKE ME SICK: European foods(01 of16)
French baguettes go stale in a day (and who can eat that much bread?!), their crazy foreign cheese are full of holes and anything that lives by a pond (eg frogs and snails) should stay there and not hop or crawl their muddy sluggy bodies onto our English plates. Additionally continental breakfasts? Je n'aime pas. If it isn't hot and it doesn't have a runny yolk, it isn't a breakfast. (credit:Alamy)
WE CAN WORK IT OUT: Sprouts and Sweetbreads(02 of16)
If we left the EU sprouts would have to be renamed. After all we would hate Brussels.It's not really fair to accuse Europeans of having weird food either. Recently we discovered we've been chomping away on horsemeat in our burgers, bringing us one step closer to the French. With dishes like sweetbreads (testicles) tripe (bleached cow intestine) and haggis (a wild scottish mystery meat) who are we to be pointing fingers? (credit:Alamy)
TA RA FOR NOW: 'Fashion Conscious' Europe(03 of16)
Many British men and women are style icons, it's true. However for many ordinary Brits struggling to work in fleeces and beanies, it is a trial to keep up with the glittering garbs and gold lame glowing on catwalks abroad. French women are too well kept for us battered Brits and no Italian man would be caught dead wearing socks and sandals. We Brits favour comfort over style (credit:Alamy)
LET'S STAY TOGETHER: Enter the onesie and the novelty slipper(04 of16)
We need all the help we can get. Grown human Britons have been spotted outside in onesies. That's a baby gro for adults. And we thought socks and sandals were bad. (credit:Alamy)
SAY GOODBYE TO EU BUREAUCRACY(05 of16)
No more EU regulations, we can have bendy bananas, dirtier beaches, and work longer hours. Wahoo! (credit:Alamy)
Want to leave the EU? WELCOME TO ADMINISTRATIVE HELL(06 of16)
If we left the EU, we'd have to change passports, driving licences, and number plates. There would be extra paperwork for extended holidays, years abroad and tax headaches. (credit:Alamy)
SO LONG, FAREWELL to Europe and its crazy driving(07 of16)
My fellow Brits, beware. As soon the white cliffs of Dover retreat from the horizon, anyone in possession of a pair of car keys turns into a motoring monster.Not only do those bloody Europeans drive on the WRONG side of the blinking road, they also drive like a lunatics, with frenzied overuse of the horn, flagrant disregard for mini roundabouts and a cavalier attitude towards parking. (credit:Getty Images)
MIGHT AS WELL STAY: British drivers are quite bad too(08 of16)
Albeit we do our crazy driving in foreign cars.Plus... the Autobahn is pretty cool. Whooooosh. (credit:PA)
FAREWELL, SO LONG: Poor language skills(09 of16)
People abroad might pretend to speak English well, but let's face it they don't. No matter how loud we shout at them. (credit:Alamy)
WE SHOULD STAY: Language(10 of16)
Brits don't travel well. We're lucky anyone talks to us at all. (credit:Alamy)
B*GGER OFF: We love animals more(11 of16)
Brits love their animals like no one in Europe. We love all dogs, whether thin, sausage like or large or gros, unlike the French who only like small yappy dogs, preferably carried under a fur-clad arm or on the end of a ridiculously long lead. And who hasn't been on a European holiday and seen a waiter kick a stray cat or bark at a dog to go away? British food has been named one of the most vegetarian-friendly countries in the EU too. Plus we don't eat horse. Face it, Europe, we just love animals more than you. (credit:Alamy)
WE SHOULD STAY: Cool European breeds(12 of16)
This poodle could teach scruffy British pets a thing or two about style. (credit:Getty Images)
WE SHOULD LEAVE: To watch Cameron exploding(13 of16)
A good reason to go is that former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt told HuffPost UK that Cameron was a “madman, threatening to blow himself up unless he gets his own way”. So lets not give him his own way (and watch him explode!) (credit:Alamy)
Let's stay in: To p*ss off Murdoch mainly (14 of16)
If the British people voted to stay in it would really p*ss off Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre and Richard Desmond. What would they write about? The Daily Express offices would implode in a heap of blue blood and dizzy yellow stars. (credit:Alamy)
WE SHOULD LEAVE because of Nigel Farage(15 of16)
If we separated from the EU, Nigel Farage would be on television more. And he'd be even more excited than usual because he will have been right (credit:PA)
WE SHOULD STAY Because Nigel Farage Would Be On The TV(16 of16)
And he would be angry, which would be amazing. (credit:Getty Images)
France vs Britain
Reasons we want Britain to leave: the food(01 of07)
Old chaps, Your fish and chips are as beautiful as your triangular sandwiches, and the fact that all of London is now dotted with bland chain restaurants show that you know how convert the nation to the tastes of the world.However step out of the London metropolis and disaster is never far away. And since we know that in Scotland, some fry chocolate bars and enjoy, frankly we cannot trust you. Furthermore, while we welcome the common market it has certain cultural limits. (credit:Flickr:Podknox)
Reasons we want Britain to leave: You are an island people(02 of07)
This factor explains a number of defects that characterize you. Even if your red telephone boxes are very cool and your imperial buses are quite funny, know that we are wary of the islands.For us, Britain is just a larger species of Corsica where it rains all the time and where the meat is not good.Yet as regards cheese (another speciality from Corsica), the Brits are not doing just well enough with Stilton and Cheddar. The comparison doesn't stop there. Just as some Corsicans want their independence, so there are many anti-Europe Brits in the UK.And just like the Corsicans, you want to leave us, but when it comes to get serious, nobody supports it. (credit:Shutterstock)
Reasons we want Britain to stay: a democratic parliament(03 of07)
There are some secrets we keep to ourselves. We must admit, we like your royal family and would like to have the same. If we could replace the President of the European Commission by Elizabeth II, that would be amazing.More seriously, even if the inequality of the established monarchy escapes us, your parliamentary democracy is a model for us, despite its flaws. For you, ministers resign and there are inquires if people are not very honest. Everyone can not say the same. (credit:AFP)
Reasons Britain should stay : Winston Churchill(04 of07)
The man has long since passed away, but he lives with us through his aphorisms.If we do not know all his good sentences, there is one that we will never forget: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much Owed by so many to so few" The French know what they owe to RAF pilots that allowed Britain to keep the cradle of the resistance against the Nazis.Since water has flowed under the bridges. The Germans have become our friends but we feel as close to them as we feel close to you, in spite of this Channel that separates us?As we celebrate this week the fifty years of the Elysée Treaty which completely seal the Franco-German reconciliation in 1963, the question arises. Ask it too. (credit:Alamy)
Reasons Britain should leave: You drive on the left(05 of07)
That is one thing that annoys us. When you exit the station at St Pancras we cannot help but wonder. Why the hell do you feel the need to differentiate yourself by riding on the wrong side? Are you aware that apart from Japan, you are the only ones who made this decision? And how many of your former colonies are they forced to undergo this medieval diktat?This is not only because the twelfth century sword was left (hence it was in one's interests to walk to the left to avoid collisons with the pedestrian in front of). However a thousand years later , the innocent must suffer the consequences. Not to mention the trains. In addition, we are reminded that you are virtually the only European nation that Napoleon had not conquered. Damn the Duke of Wellington. (credit:AFP)
Reasons Britain should leave : The Tabloids(06 of07)
The News of the World scandal has shocked us, really. We do not understand the practices of this release. And this scantily dressed woman on page 3 of the Sun, it is downright degrading."One can measure the greatness of a country to the quality of the press," wrote Albert Camus, Nobel Prize for Literature, which we celebrate this year, the centenary of the birth. Even The Economist , the most serious European Weekly is contaminated by the spirit tabloid, making French bashing with a vengeance.If you leave the EU, we shall not miss your tabloids and even less regret the fact that the first pictures of Kate Middleton's breasts were printed by a French magazine. You could at least, but thankful for that one reason. (credit:dr)
Reason Britain should stay: the French in London(07 of07)
It will be a real tragedy if you vote against staying in the EU simply because of the 400,000 French living in London.We do not have the capacity to accommodate nearly half a million refugees in our country, even if they come from posh South Kensington. Do you have any idea of the number of traders in the City, who will find themselves unemployed overnight? And frankly, if you need to get rid of French hipsters, you could find a better excuse. (credit:Alamy)
To read this article in French please click here.