Lovers of British independence are worried. Two recent landmark events have Europe gaining ground in its long campaign to emasculate Britain.

First is the Vatican’s acceptance of willing Anglicans into its ranks. The Church of England is weak, surrendering its moral authority to liberalism. The pope recognized an opportunity, and reached out to England’s conservative believers. Now, what remains of one of Britain’s pillar institutions—representing its independence from the Continent since the 16th century—is about to become completely irrelevant. Expect the trashing of the Act of Settlement to follow. Since 1701, this act has ensured Britain’s monarch is Anglican and not Catholic, hence loyal to Britain rather than to Rome.

Second is the apparent inevitability of the European Union getting its constitution—probably before the year’s out. This month, the Lisbon Treaty cleared two of its last remaining obstacles to ratification: Ireland voted yes, and the Czech president, the “last man standing” against it, caved in to pressure and says he’ll accept it. Once the treaty becomes law, shifting power away from smaller states and into the hands of Germany and France in particular, you can be sure that the tempo of European unification will accelerate—much to the chagrin of member nations that cherish their sovereignty.

Put Britain at the head of that list.

As European unification steamrolls forward, the British, by all appearances, are about to install their most Euroskeptical government since they joined the project in 1973.

The Conservative party holds a double-digit lead over the Labor Party in polls. Among its ranks are a significant number who, contrary to the party platform, want Britain to pull out of the EU (Newsweek cited a Web survey of party members that puts it at a formidable 39 percent). David Cameron, likely the next prime minister, wants to stay in the EU but says he opposes its goal of “ever closer union.” The Telegraph’s Mary Riddell says Cameron seems ambitious “to make Britain the ingrowing toenail of Europe.”

The Lisbon Treaty rankles the Brits. Polls show somewhere between a two-thirds and three-quarters majority against it. Prime Minister Gordon Brown dealt with the issue by ignoring it: He cravenly refused to put the matter to a public referendum and signed the treaty regardless. The Tories gained some traction with the public by campaigning on a promise to hold that referendum anyway—that is, if the treaty isn’t yet ratified when they assume power.

Given recent events, that isn’t going to happen. This reality has provoked fresh disgruntlement among Britons. Some infuriated Tories say the referendum should proceed even if Lisbon is already law. London’s mayor says the country should put individual elements of the treaty to a public vote. One senior Tory mp says the public should vote on whether to split from Europe entirely. These aren’t extreme fringe views in Britain. Three quarters of British people want to move away from the EU—either by withdrawing completely or negotiating a new, looser relationship.

Of course, such gaudy appeals to democratic prerogative are barbarous in the eyes of Europe’s elites.

David Cameron faces having to come to terms with these opposing camps. Publicly, he’s leaning homeward. Though backing off the promised referendum, he has pledged to renegotiate the treaty to reclaim some of Britain’s sovereignty. He says that under a Tory government, he will strive to repatriate his nation’s power over its social and employment policy, and regain some control over justice and home affairs. He has threatened to block the next round of EU treaties if Europe fails to accept his government’s demands.

EU leaders lift their noses at the prospect of a Cameron administration. They accuse his team of disrespecting their efforts to establish a working relationship. Earlier this year, Cameron withdrew his party from an influential center-right alliance of mainstream parties in the European Parliament—in order to align with Euroskeptic groups. Europe’s heavyweights were shocked and disgusted.

“One senior German official said Cameron would receive a ‘cool reception’ in Europe if he wins power,” reported Reuters, “while an Italian diplomat predicted that Britain would be ‘isolated.’”

It’s not difficult to see where this is going. On Monday British Foreign Secretary David Miliband publicly criticized Cameron, saying any effort to renegotiate terms with Europe would “lead inevitably to more calls for Britain to leave the European Union.” True enough.

Interestingly, even recently there was far more Cameron-style dissent within EU ranks, particularly among Eastern and Central European states. But that resistance is withering—or, as the Czech president’s about-face showed, getting crushed under the EU’s bureaucratic momentum.

“Nobody in the rest of Europe really worries about a European superstate anymore,” Pawel Swieboda of a Polish think tank explained to Reuters. “People are more concerned about Europe’s weakness, not its excessive strength. The Tories’ attitude is seen as outdated in Poland. Euroskepticism is a thing of the past here.”

That Euroskepticism is still earning David Cameron points with British voters—but as his turn at the nation’s helm approaches, it is going to attract increasing hostility from his political peers across the Channel. “The Continent is now basically united within the European Union and is looking quite homogeneous,” said Daniel Gros, who directs the Center for European Policy in Brussels. “If one island off the coast no longer wants to cooperate, then that is increasingly its problem and not Europe’s.”

Actually, Britain is Europe’s problem. It has been for decades. Now, just as the EU looks to springboard into greater global influence as a unified political entity under a single constitution, that one island off the coast is voicing noisier discontent than ever. Don’t expect Europe to put up with it. It is summoning the will to confront it. As is becoming increasingly plain, Europe isn’t going to let anyone stop its pursuit of “ever closer union.”

As we have said for years—and as Herbert W. Armstrong said for decades before us—the flirtation between Britain and the Continent was ill-conceived from the start and is destined to break up.

The biblical prophecies that informed Mr. Armstrong’s long-standing forecast that this relationship would eventually end also reveal the catastrophic end of Britain’s dalliance with Europe. Read our article “When Britain Leaves Europe …” to get a better understanding of where this trend is leading. And for a more comprehensive study, read Mr. Armstrong’s masterwork The United States and Britain in Prophecy. We will gladly send you a free copy upon request.

Many Britons are hoping that their nation will scale back its relationship with the Continent. They need to understand, however, that while a break between these two powers is prophesied to occur, the future of Britain is inextricably bound to that of Europe in a manner truly horrifying to contemplate.