Boris Johnson: The EU wants a superstate, just as Hitler did

[MikeWB]

The European Union is pursuing a similar goal to Hitler in trying to create a powerful superstate, Boris Johnson says.

In a dramatic interview with the Telegraph, he warns that while bureaucrats in Brussels are using "different methods" from the Nazi dictator, they share the aim of unifying Europe under one "authority".

But the EU's "disastrous" failures have fuelled tensions between member states and allowed Germany to grow in power, "take over" the Italian economy and "destroy" Greece, he warns.
""Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.""Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson invokes Winston Churchill's war-time defiance, urging the British people to be "the heroes of Europe" again, set the country free and save the EU from itself by voting to leave in the referendum next month.

The former mayor of London, who is a keen classical scholar, argues that the past 2,000 years of European history have been characterised by repeated attempts to unify Europe under a single government in order to recover the continent's lost "golden age" under the Romans.
Boris Johnson Mr Johnson warns that bureaucrats in Brussels want to unify Europe under one "authority" Credit: Andrew Parsons for The Telegraph

"Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically," he says.

"The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.

"But fundamentally what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void."

Mr Johnson's potentially inflammatory comparison to Hitler comes at a critical time in the referendum campaign, with senior Tories on either side publicly attacking each other in blunt terms.

In the interview, the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, who is a favourite to be the next Conservative leader:

    * Fuels speculation over his own ambitions by setting out his own "Tory mission" for how to win future general elections. He warns that the Conservatives cannot simply talk about "aspiration and opportunity" while forgetting the poor, in a coded rebuke to George Osborne;
    *  Piles pressure on David Cameron by challenging him to a face-to-face television debate, saying such a clash is crucial for the democratic process;
    * Accuses the Prime Minister of being "rash" and undermining Nato by claiming that the EU is the guarantor of peace in Europe and that Brexit could lead to war;
    * Insists that he is still "friends" with Mr Cameron even though senior Tories are "knocking seven bells out of each other" like rugby players in the middle of a brutal match.

Mr Johnson was speaking as the referendum battle entered its most intense final six weeks.

With polls suggesting the contest is close, leaders of all the main political parties put aside their differences to join the Remain campaign in favour of continuing EU membership.
""I am absolutely convinced that our economic security will be better if we stay in a reformed European Union and it will be seriously at risk if we were to leave.""David Cameron

In what Downing Street sources described as an "unprecedented" moment, the leaders of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties all attended some of the 1,000 Remain campaign events held across Britain on Saturday.

A Labour battle bus took to the streets to campaign for Remain, while the Prime Minister unveiled a new poster in his Oxfordshire constituency of Witney.

Mr Cameron warned that a vote to leave the EU in the poll on June 23 would deliver an "immediate and sustained hit" to the economy that could tip Britain back into recession.

"I am absolutely convinced that our economic security will be better if we stay in a reformed European Union and it will be seriously at risk if we were to leave," he told a small crowd of supporters.

"If we vote to leave on June 23 we will be voting for higher prices, we will be voting for fewer jobs, we will be voting for lower growth, we will be voting potentially for a recession. That is the last thing our economy needs."

The Prime Minister's Remain campaign will escalate its warnings of the economic costs of a vote for Brexit this week with a series of further high profile interventions.

In an article for the Telegraph website, Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary, explains why as a lifelong critic of Brussels he converted to join the Remain campaign.

"I am a Eurosceptic and proud of it," Mr Javid writes.

But even Margaret Thatcher was in favour of Britain remaining in the European single market, and "campaigned enthusiastically" to create it, he says.

Mr Javid argues: "It gives every business in Britain access to 500 million customers with no barriers, no tariffs and no local legislation to worry about."

Yesterday, Mr Johnson travelled to Bristol, as Vote Leave staged 300 events around the UK. In his interview, he suggests that the economic benefits of EU membership have been exaggerated, when in fact the euro has fuelled tensions between member states.
Boris Johnson on his family farm in the Exmoor National Park in Devon  Boris Johnson on his family farm in the Exmoor National Park in Devon  Credit: Andrew Parsons for The Telegraph

"The Italians, who used to be a great motor-manufacturing power, have been absolutely destroyed by the euro – as was intended by the Germans," Mr Johnson claims.

"The euro has become a means by which superior German productivity is able to gain an absolutely unbeatable advantage over the whole eurozone." He adds: "This is a chance for the British people to be the heroes of Europe and to act as a voice of moderation and common sense, and to stop something getting in my view out of control."

Meanwhile, the Vote Leave campaign published research suggesting that the single market had failed Britain. Official EU statistics show that over the last decade, the value of British exports of goods to the EU has fallen by 18 per cent.

The campaign claims that this is a worse performance than every member state other than Luxembourg.

By contrast, German exports of goods during the same period rose by 78.9 per cent.

In an echo of Sir John Major's soapbox campaigning, Mr Cameron stood on a pallet to deliver his speech after unveiling a new poster.  The poster showed an envelope on a doormat and warned that leaving the EU would cost "£4,300 for every household".

Mr Cameron said European funding would be cut for vital infrastructure projects "across every region of the UK" after a Brexit vote.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/14/boris-johnson-the-eu-wants-a-superstate-just-as-hitler-did/