Sunday 28 February 2016

How We Fell For Europe



Michael Cockerell describes the low politics of the 1975 European Referendum, complementing his 1970s documentary on the same subject. 


Thirty years on, both sides were more willing to discuss the referendum openly. 


The original political debacle made strange bedfellows: Enoch Powell, Harold Wilson and Tony Benn opposed continued membership, whilst Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Margaret Thatcher supported staying in the Common Market, as the EU then was.




The BBC's coverage of the 5th June 1975 EEC referendum results, featuring the names and faces of the day. 

This recording consists of the final hour of results.

Eurasia has always been at war with Eastasia.

“This radical Right fairy tale, which is now an accepted folk myth in many groups in America, pictured the recent history of the United States… as a well-organized plot by extreme Left-wing elements… to destroy the American way of life...
this myth, like all fables, does in fact have a modicum of truth.

There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network… 

I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records.

 I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments...


The two ends of this English-speaking axis have sometimes been called, perhaps facetiously, the English and American Establishments. 


There is, however, a considerable degree of truth behind the joke, a truth which reflects a very real power structure.” 

Professor Carroll Quigley,
Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in Our Time


[Bloody Geldoff...]

"We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. 

Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective—a new world order—can emerge: 

a new era—
freer from the threat of terror, 
stronger in the pursuit of justice, 
and 
more secure in the quest for peace. 

An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony. 

A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. 

Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we've known. 

A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. 

A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. 

A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak. 

This is the vision that I shared with President Gorbachev in Helsinki. He and other leaders from Europe, the Gulf, and around the world understand that how we manage this crisis today could shape the future for generations to come.

The test we face is great, and so are the stakes. This is the first assault on the new world that we seek, the first test of our mettle. 

Had we not responded to this first provocation with clarity of purpose, if we do not continue to demonstrate our determination, it would be a signal to actual and potential despots around the world. 

America and the world must defend common vital interests
—and we will. 

America and the world must support the rule of law
—and we will. 

America and the world must stand up to aggression
—and we will. 

And one thing more: In the pursuit of these goals America will not be intimidated."

September 11th 1990


No comments:

Post a Comment