Project Hokey Cokey
Boris Johnson penned an exclusive article for The Telegraph newspaper 'explaining' his decision to back 'No' in the long-awaited referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
Apart from misjudging the political mood in Scotland (he says Scots will vote the same way as their English neighbours), Bojo suggests that a No vote will allow a further renegotiation with Europe, for a 'better deal', as opposed to a clean-break decision to leave.
So not so much 'In' or 'Out' as 'Shaking It All About' which seems a remarkable stance to take if you ask me, especially after all these years of intense debate and political argument.
Chris Deerin writing in The Mail newspaper helpfully points out that Project Boris is about as far removed from the national interest as you can get:
"We have a right to expect such a figure to be substantial and moral, to say what they mean and mean what they say. In the hundreds of columns and thousands of speeches Boris has delivered, he has never, until now, called for Britain to leave the EU. What changed his mind?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3457664/CHRIS-DEERIN-Boris-s-decision-doing-s-best-Boris.html
Boris Johnson exclusive: There is only one way to get the change we want – vote to leave the EU
David Cameron has done his very best, but a vote to Remain will be taken in Brussels as a green light for the further erosion of democracy
By Boris Johnson- The Telegraph
I am a European. I lived many years in Brussels. I rather love the old place. And so I resent the way we continually confuse Europe – the home of the greatest and richest culture in the world, to which Britain is and will be an eternal contributor – with the political project of the European Union. It is, therefore, vital to stress that there is nothing necessarily anti-European or xenophobic in wanting to vote Leave on June 23.
And it is important to remember: it isn’t we in this country who have changed. It is the European Union. In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable, rather as the vast new Euro palaces of glass and steel now lour over the little cobbled streets in the heart of the Belgian capital.
By Boris Johnson- The Telegraph
I am a European. I lived many years in Brussels. I rather love the old place. And so I resent the way we continually confuse Europe – the home of the greatest and richest culture in the world, to which Britain is and will be an eternal contributor – with the political project of the European Union. It is, therefore, vital to stress that there is nothing necessarily anti-European or xenophobic in wanting to vote Leave on June 23.
And it is important to remember: it isn’t we in this country who have changed. It is the European Union. In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable, rather as the vast new Euro palaces of glass and steel now lour over the little cobbled streets in the heart of the Belgian capital.
