Brown Study: History and Europe
I have been watching Gordon Brown’s masterful speech, and I
am certain that unlike the Tony Blairs of this world, he is passionate and
sincere about the case to remain in Europe. If you don’t think so, I suggest
you read “Courage: Eight Portraits”.
Watch the video here:
Here’s the text:
‘I’m walking through the ruins at Coventry Cathedral, bombed
and destroyed by Nazi warplanes 70 years ago, and now painstakingly and
lovingly maintained, as a monument to wars that we’ve left behind, and to the
sanctuary of peace.
“And just think of it. For a thousand years and more, the
nations of Europe at war with each other – murdering and maiming each other.”
“In every century but this one, the nations of Europe vying
for supremacy. In every generation but this one, our people dying.”
“And now, a Europe at peace. A Europe where decisions are
made by dialogue, discussion and debate. A Europe where the only battle is the
battle of ideas.”
“A Europe where we fight with arguments and not with
armaments. A Europe that is at peace because of What Britain did to establish
freedom across the whole of the continent.”
“And we are the British people who have Europe the greatest
statement of human rights, based on British values, driven forward by British
experience, and now no country can enter the European Union without subscribing
to these values.”
“And we are the British people who stood shoulder to
shoulder with the peoples of eastern Europe when Soviet tanks rolled in said
that they too were welcome into the European Union, if they subscribed to democracy,
human rights and the rule of law.”
“And the Europe that we’re creating is not simply a
marketplace. It is a community, where every single worker has rights to holiday
pay, a maximum working week, so that the good employer cannot be undercut by
the bad, and the bad by the worst in a race to the bottom.”
“And we shouldn’t just be a member of the European Union. We
should be a leader of the European Union.”
“Soon we will be the strongest economy in Europe. The
stronger nations look to us for leadership.”
“And what message would we send to the rest of the world if
we, the British people, the most internationally-minded of all, were to walk
away from our nearest neighbours?”
“We should be leading in Europe, and not leaving it.’”
As Adam Bager comments
“Gordon Brown has intervened in the Brexit debate with an
impressive and passionate speech made from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral
(preserved as a memorial to the bomb damage of the Second World War – ‘Nazi’
bombing, he is careful to say, not ‘German’ bombing).”
“What’s impressive is that he makes the POSITIVE arguments
that the campaign has so far lacked. An audience laughed the other day when
Cameron made the ‘World War Three’ claims, but the point about peace in Europe
is an important one, and whereas Cameron made it ineptly, here in this video
Gordon Brown makes it persuasively and movingly.”
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