Yesterdays tweet from Will Hutton shown here offers a useful reminder of how the Conservative Party led and influenced by Winston Churchill, one of the UKs most influential and respected leaders across the world in 21st Century was at the heart of the origins of the European Union. Churchill was far from perfect as both a human being and a politician and in many senses his commitment to Imperialism was arguably at the heart of his thinking just as it is clearly evident in the thinking of people like Liam Fox and Boris Johnson. However the big difference between them and Churchill, speaking in 1948 was that he was already wealthy enough for himself and had achieved as much as he hoped to in political terms. So his speech in 1948 and subsequent calls for a united Europe were not self centred. The words were in essence an attempt to avoid future wars and the further destruction of nations and people who Churchill saw as important. As this blog by Jon Danzig explains:

“In May 1948 Churchill said in the opening speech to the Congress of Europe in Holland, that the drive towards a United Europe, ‘should be a movement of the people, not parties’. Churchill, who also proposed a European ‘Charter’ and ‘Court’ of Human Rights, continued, ‘We aim at the eventual participation of all the peoples throughout the continent whose society and way of life are in accord with the Charter of Human Rights.’
During this momentous speech, Churchill proclaimed: ‘We cannot aim at anything less than the Union of Europe as a whole, and we look forward with confidence to the day when that Union will be achieved.’ And Churchill went much further than the idea of the immediate and urgent creation of a United States of Europe. Looking boldly to the future he stated, ‘We must endeavour by patience and faithful service to prepare for the day when there will be an effective world government resting on the main groupings of mankind.’”

One of the references Jon Danzig makes in his piece is this news report from the Sydney Morning Herald on 8th May 1948. The paper reports that Churchill states:

“We aim at the eventual participation of all the peoples throughout the Continent whose society and way of life are in accord with the charter of human rights. We welcome any country where the people own the government and not the government the people”

Another quote from the same article refers to Mr Pieter Kerstens who was Chairman of the Dutch delegation who stated that through the “folly of individual sovereign policy”, Europe had become “a hopelessly divided and vulnerable continent, with all the characteristics of a civilisation doomed to go under.” Whilst I have no idea who Pieter Kerstens was, his words seem very pertinent!