Monday 25 May 2009

How Dare They!

I’ve just seen the UK Independence Party poster, walking back from town. It has a big photo of Winston Churchill with his iconic victory salute. How dare they try and co-opt Winston Churchill for their short sighted, head-in-the-sand anti European rhetoric!

Even if Churchill were not always pro-Europe, there is no way he would be supportive of such right wing propaganda as promulgated by UKIP. For the record, Churchill was a member of the Liberal party, then the Conservatives. He had a pragmatic view towards Europe, and after the war suggested a ‘United States of Europe’, albeit for reasons of peace. He was pro American and pro Commonwealth but it is a far fetched view indeed that aligns him with such insular political views as UKIP. It was such a poor view of Europe as held by Churchill’s predecessors that allowed Hitler to think we would turn a blind eye to the invasion of Poland. Churchill was not someone who was anti-European.

So how have UKIP got away with the implied claim that Winston Churchill is one of them? I trust their demise in the European elections will be swift and final. How dare they indeed!

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