British Prime Minister David Cameron has been mocked by Brexit campaigners after briefing the country’s media on a speech, to be delivered Monday, that insists if Britain leaves the European Union (EU), war may follow.
Mr. Cameron, speaking in London on Monday, is expected to say that Britain acts as a peacekeeper in Europe – and is one of the sole reasons the continent doesn’t go to war with itself.
He is also expected to invoke Sir Winston Churchill, the most respected Briton to have ever lived, in claiming that the war-winning prime minister would have disapproved of Brexit.
But Brexit campaigners have already pointed to Sir Winston’s statements, according to the Times, on Britain and a federal Europe (EU).
In May 1953, Sir Winston told the House of Commons: “We are not members of the European defence community, nor do we intend to be merged in a federal European system.”
While the former British PM did indeed act as a forerunner for the EU – praising his friend Count Coudenhove-Kalergi for the long-standing idea of a United States of Europe – he never wished for Britain to be a part of it.
Regardless, Mr. Cameron will say: “Isolationism has never served this country well. Whenever we turn our back on Europe, sooner or later we come to regret it. We have always had to go back in, and always at much higher cost.
“The serried rows of white headstones in lovingly tended Commonwealth war cemeteries stand as silent testament to the price this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe. Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.”
Mr. Cameron is expected to talk of “pivotal moments in European history: Blenheim, Trafalgar, Waterloo, our country’s heroism in the Great War and, most of all, our lone stand in 1940”.
But the “Project Fear” style, coupled with the ratcheting up of rhetoric on the issue are both thought to be consequences of Mr. Cameron and his ‘in’ campaigners being unable to stifle the Brexit movement.
Indeed, with the advance of Britain’s immigration crisis, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and poor, new economic forecasts, there is an increasing concern amongst the political establishment that a Brexit vote could win the day.
The Times newspaper – mostly believed to be pro-EU – chooses as its subheadline for the story: “Stubborn support for Leave vote rattles No 10”. Perhaps a sign that Mr. Cameron is choosing to roll out major announcements ahead of schedule in order to gain some ground.
His tactic of bringing U.S. President Barack Obama to the UK to talk up Britain’s role in the European Union failed spectacularly, when the president failed to make a single percentage point dent in the polls.
In President Obama’s intervention last month, he also invoked the war dead, claiming: “The tens of thousands of Americans who rest in Europe’s cemeteries are a silent testament to just how intertwined our prosperity and security truly are.”
Pollsters have told Breitbart London that the core narratives the ‘In’ campaign believes to be strongest for anti-Brexit activity are economics/jobs, national security, and Russia/Putin.