Brexit Will Not Spark World War 3

Boris Johnson has said there is "systematic subterfuge" to hide from the public the full scale of EU interference in the way Britain runs.

In a speech billed as his "biggest intervention" in the EU campaign so far he said: "This is an accelerated effort to build a country called Europe."

In a direct attack on David Cameron, Mr Johnson said the Prime Minister had failed to deliver on any of his promises made in his first big speech on seeking EU reform in the new deal struck with other European leaders.

He said to call it a "reformed EU" was misleading and would even be illegal under some EU regulations.

And he rejected the Prime Minister's claim that Brexit could lead to war in Europe saying it was "not the most powerful argument" he had heard.
He said: "I don't believe that leaving the EU would cause World War Three to break out on the continent."

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Mr Johnson said independent countries had done better outside the single market and said the UK's membership exposed it to 2,500 new regulations a year.

And he added that negotiating within the EU was like being a "28-man pantomime horse with everyone pulling in different directions".

Then he sang Ode to Joy in German to prove he wasn't a "little Englander" and added that he found it "offensive" and "positively cretinous" to be told that he belonged "to a group of small-minded xenophobes".

Mr Johnson said that Vote Leave would win on 23 June because the Remain campaign was fighting "for an outdated absolutist ideology, and we are fighting for freedom".

His speech came after David Cameron claimed Brexit could lead to war as he made a "big, bold, patriotic" case to remain in the European Union in a 45-minute speech early on Monday morning.

The Prime Minister said peace in Europe could not be guaranteed if the UK left the EU and that he was not willing to take that risk.
He also warned that "closest cooperation" with European countries was not an "optional extra" with the dual threats of Daesh and Russia.

Mr Cameron invoked the spirit of Sir Winston Churchill saying the wartime leader had not wanted to go it alone and in the months before the Battle of Britain had tried to keep French allies in the war and had turned to the US.

Mr Cameron's key speech marked an upturn in campaigning following the local elections last week.

Mr Johnson, who, as a biographer of Churchill, is expected to challenge the Prime Minister's claims.

The Leave campaign claimed it smacked of desperation and was another example of Project Fear, the label given to campaigns trying to scare voters into seeing their side.

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Introduced by former Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Mr Cameron said: "For good or ill, we have written Europe's history just as Europe has helped to write ours.

"The moments of which we are rightly most proud in our national story include 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 ... 

"The European Union has helped reconcile countries which were at each others' throats for decades."

He added: "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."

When challenged on his claims he said: "I would just say look at the speech, look at what I've said, consider the arguments. No-one can doubt that Europe has had a violent and turbulent history.

"These are facts. I am not arguing that the EU alone has kept the peace in Europe these last 70 years because, of course, Nato played a key role."

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Mr Cameron went on to attack leave campaigners who wanted Brexit to bring about the unravelling of the EU, saying for Britain to "trigger" the collapse would be an "act of supreme irresponsibility".
And he also hit back at the claims of his Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, at the weekend in which he claimed Britain leaving the single market would increase the rate of growth, something the Prime Minister described as "reckless".

Ahead of his speech, the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign group released a video featuring World War Two veterans calling on people to vote 'remain'.

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A Vote Leave spokesman, responding to Mr Cameron's comments, said: "Claims that leaving the EU and taking back control would somehow lead to war smack of desperation from a campaign failing to make the case for the EU and our continued payment of £350m to Brussels every week.

"The PM's words are deeply ironic given the EU's own border agency says the EU's borderless policy is making the whole of Europe less safe. The safe option is to vote Leave."

Source: AFP