The best reason to leave the EU may have been overlooked, argues William Mills, citing that EU federalists, believing they have access to Britain’s nuclear arsenal, might goad Russia into war.
The decision which heralded the end of Britain’s empire was announced in January 1943 at the height of the World War II.
US President Roosevelt announced at Casablanca what Germany’s surrender terms would be to end the war in Europe.
Speaking years later a Labour member of the war cabinet explained that he assumed Churchill would have agreed the details in advance with the Americans and the decision was taken by a committee of which he was not part of.
The Labour MP said he nearly fell of his seat when Churchill, speaking after the war, told the House of Commons he didn’t know in advance either and wasn’t consulted as to what terms to impose on Germany.
From that date Britain no longer had control of its foreign policy as a sovereign state.
This was painfully brought home in 1956 at the time of the Suez Crisis. Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt after President Nasser seized the Suez Canal.
Russia threatened nuclear war and America, furious at not having been consulted in advance, refused to back her allies up. Eden’s government fell amid a humiliating British climb down.
The next world event to shape Britain and Europe’s foreign policy was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
The USA had placed long range missiles in northern Turkey which had the capacity to reach deep into the Soviet Union.
Their response was to prepare launch sites in Cuba which would place American cities within range for the first time.
Some Americans thought that if war with the Soviets was inevitable it was better to have it before trans Atlantic missiles were developed.
The US government’s special relationship with Britain was special, but not as special as with New York and the other US cities in the firing line.
Because the Americans had considered having a nuclear war in Europe whilst their own cities remained relatively safe, Britain looked to Trident’s predecessor, Polaris, as the guarantee of its safety.
It would give Britain the ability to launch first strike nuclear attacks on any country so threatening to do the same.
Whether weapons bought from America give true independence is a mute point, yet possession of the world’s most advanced weapons’ system at least gives Britain the status of a super power.
The danger to future peace lies in EU federalists dreaming of a European super state.
If EU members, they argue, pool their military resources to create a European army they will acquire Britain’s unique access to America’s strategic weaponry.
Yet Britain will never relinquish control of its nuclear arsenal as America would have retained safeguards to prevent herself being targeted.
It has the ability to turn off its satellite navigational system which has been demonstrated in recent years, particularly in the disputes with Iran over incursions into their territorial waters. Normally GPS would give each vessel its precise location.
However if America turns its satellites off, navigation is immediately returned to the days of paper charts and heaving the lead line.
They have the ability to do this anywhere in the world including the English Channel at the flick of a switch.
Until communism fell in the early 1990’s most European countries were divided between being either a part of NATO or the Warsaw Pact, although sometimes overlooked is Finland.
Originally part of Tsarist Russia, it broke away during the 1917 Russian Revolution and fought on Hitler’s side during WWII.
Yet it managed to escape Stalin’s wrath in the aftermath and has trod a careful path between the two superpowers ever since, only joining the EU in 1995 when neighbouring Sweden did likewise.
NATO by allowing Poland and the Baltic states to join, may find it turns out to be a dangerous step as many still remember the 20 million Russians who died under the WWII Nazi jack boot, and the two million German women brutally raped in 1945.
Both sides are fearful of the perceived enemy encroaching and unbalancing the status quo.
The EU federalists believing they have Britain’s Trident at their disposal are inexorably leading Europe towards another war.
In signing up countries that lie in what Russia regards as its patch endangers the rest of us. The closer the EU expands towards Mother Russia’s sacred heartland the sooner the Russians will flex their muscles.
Leave the EU
Only by Britain leaving the EU will it be made clear to the federalists that they must exercise caution when baiting the Russian bear.
The former Warsaw Pact countries should follow Finland’s lead and tread a careful path of peaceful coexistence between Europe and Asia.
With Britain’s departure the EU would have to accept the reality that it is an economic trading zone, and not a nuclear armed super state.
Britain in its turn, finally free of Brussels, would be able develop its own unique place in a modern world keeping its international military obligations separate from peaceful trading with its immediate neighbours across the Channel.
