Saying ‘Yes’ to a Social Europe
- The question of Europe is not new. Therefore it is important to take the long view and the quotes below from two Conservative Prime Ministers show the importance of our long term relationship with Europe.
- In 1897, Lord Salisbury, British Prime Minister, at the time of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and height of British imperial power wrote, ‘The Federated action of Europe, if we can maintain it, is our sole hope of escaping from the constant terror and calamity of war, the constant pressure and burdens of an armed peace which weigh down the spirits and darken the prospect of every nation in this part of the world. The Federation of Europe is the only hope we have’.
- In 1942, a few days before the Battle of El Alamein, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote a minute of extraordinary insight to his Foreign Secretary Antony Eden – ‘I must admit that my thoughts rest primarily in Europe – the revival of the glory of Europe, the parent continent of modern nations and civilisation. It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism overlaid the cultures and independence of the ancient States of Europe. Hard as it is to say now, I trust that the European family must act unitedly as one under a Council of Europe…I look forward to a United States of Europe in which the barriers between the nations will be greatly minimised and unrestricted travel will become possible. I hope to see the economy of Europe studied as a whole.’
Campaigning for a Europe for working people
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