Historically, she has laid much greater stress than her continental neighbours on sophisticated external examinations at the end of compulsory schooling.

After all, we approach this new machinery from a quite different tradition to our continental neighbours and therefore stand a much better chance of humanising it.

Listening to our allies and continental neighbors is a good place to start.

The way our energy market has been "liberalised" has put us at a disadvantage compared with our continental neighbours.

Anyone who believes social security payments are generous in the UK must be making comparisons with the third world - not our continental neighbours.

You can forget about even comparing with the US mess, just look at our continental neighbours.

Trade between the two countries is relatively modest when compared to trade with their immediate continental neighbours, but still significant.

In this respect we compare very unfavourably with our continental neighbours.

UK consumers have a much smaller appetite for cheese than their continental neighbours.

Britain seriously lags behind its continental neighbours in provision for child care for working parents.