[dfwgator]

Britain should have stayed out of it. If they had stayed out of it, we would have stayed out of it.

[John Locke]

Indeed Britain should. But they couldn't. In 1905, the "Liberal" (ie socialist) party came to power. They proceeded to introduce a lot of social "reforms", in effect laying the foundation of the welfare state that is currently bankrupting the country. They paid for some of this by borrowing, and some by cutting back on Britain's armed forces.

One result was that the Royal Navy was too weak to defend the entire sea route to India and beyond. The "solution" was an unofficial alliance with France, under which the French navy would agree not to intervene in the event of war.

This pretty much obliged Britain to ally with France, should a general European war break out. And an alliance with a France that was doing its best to foment just such a war was, of course, madness. But, as always, Liberals never think through the consequences of their actions.