Obama’s remarks on the UK remaining in the EU get hostile conservative reaction

[pampango]

Obama’s remarks on UK remaining in EU get hostile Eurosceptic reaction

The US president made his strongest intervention yet in Britain’s nascent referendum campaign in an interview with the BBC, when he said Washington had much greater confidence in the transatlantic union with the UK as part of the EU.

Obama’s remarks sparked a hostile response from Eurosceptics, while Business for Britain, an umbrella group opposed to EU membership, said foreign interventions in domestic politics “rarely go down well with the public”. Business for Britain said: “This is a high profile intervention, but may not be the boon that ‘in’ campaigners will be hoping it is. Foreign intervention in domestic issues rarely goes down well with the public.

Patrick O’Flynn, the Ukip MEP, said Obama was “unwise to pressurise Britain to stay in the EU for America’s convenience. We need to look to our own national interest first.” He also urged Cameron to recover Britain’s right to sign trade deals from the EU.

John Redwood, the Eurosceptic Conservative MP, said Obama was wrong about the benefits to the UK of being in the EU. “If letting foreign countries impose laws on you, levy taxes on you, and spend your money is such a good idea why doesn’t he create a North American Union so Mexico can have common borders with the US ...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/24/barack-obama-uk-eu-european-union-hostile-eurosceptic-reaction

The British conservative MP even mentioned the mythical North American Union that the American far-right loves to rail against.

The formation of a North American Union has been the subject of various conspiracy theories.

... to expand NAFTA into a North American Union analogous to the European Union (EU), with open borders and a common currency among other features, was being made by the fall of 2006, when conservative commentators Phyllis Schlafly, Jerome Corsi and Howard Phillips started a website dedicated to quashing what they perceived as the coming North American "Socialist mega-state".

The belief that a North American Union was being planned and implemented in secret became widespread, so much so that the NAU was a topic of debate during the 2008 American presidential campaigns and the subject of various U.S. Congressional resolutions designed to thwart its implementation. Prominent critics such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul denounced the concept, joined by Internet blogs and widely viewed videos and films such as "Zeitgeist". Corsi’s 2007 book "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada" also helped bring the NAU discussion into the mainstream. These beliefs are the latest example of a long line of erroneous conspiracy theories which suggest that the United States’ sovereignty is being eroded by a cabal of foreign and domestic players.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

The right is nothing if not consistent.

[randome]

1. Um, we SHOULD have a North American Union.

Followed by a Western Hemisphere Union, followed by a United Earth followed by a United Federation of Planets.

Unification is always preferable to hostile economics.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[pampango]

3. You are the liberal that conservative national sovereignty hawks have nightmares about.

You obviously do not wake up every day with a fear of "US vs THEM" and how we can build a bigger 'wall' to keep us apart.

[geek tragedy]

5. Unification needs to follow political consensus, not precede it. nt

[pampango]

6. Agree. That's what happened in Europe after WWII. Politicians and others can provide

leadership in that direction; or in the opposing direction - to stop and reverse unification as is prevalent today in many right wing parties in Europe. There certainly needs to be a critical mass of political consensus but 100% consensus will never be achieved.

[randome]

8. That has been the case in the past but perhaps it's a different world now.

The Information Age already homogenizes us to a certain extent. Maybe it was too soon to establish the Eurozone but I give Europe credit for trying.

And perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. That's always a possibility.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[djean111]

4. Haha! If it is as leaked, the TPP et al. will be establishing a global union ruled by banks and

corporations.

[pampango]

7. That would be an awful 'global union'. The RW's CT on "global union" has more to do with

'open borders', international socialism and a One World Government. I think they know that without some form of global cooperation between governments, multinational corporations and banks will get to go after individual countries one at a time. They are quite comfortable with that scenario.