“The EU helped to keep the peace in Europe”
Pure mythology.
1945-1949: Peace was kept in Europe by the British and US armies stationed in Germany
1949 onwards: Peace was kept in Europe by NATO. Predominantly US, Canadian and British troops were stationed in Europe to counter the threat of the Soviet bloc. The USA and Canada are not members of the EU!
France left NATO in 1959 because of its self interest. France did not fully rejoin until 2009.
The disintegration of the old Soviet Union in 1991 removed the main military threat to Europe.
New risks have arisen. New risks can best be countered by NATO and co-operation between democratic nation states. Selfish self-interest combined with European political and economic integration hinder response to any new risks.
Democratic nations have never gone to war with each other.
Peace in Europe is threatened by removal of democratic accountability and centralised control – the cause of most wars.
Handing control of UK foreign, security and defence policy to the EU will be unpredictable. Giving control of UK security to the EU is a recipe for disaster.
Are we not we stronger on the world stage as part of the EU?
The opposite is actually true. The more centralised the EU becomes and the more power we surrender and the less influential we become in the world. Britain still has a seat on the UN Security Council,, and we still have a seat on over 100 international organisations. However, we lost our independent seat on the World Trade Organisation in 1973 when we surrendered it to the EU. The EU’s ambition is to have a seat in its own right on the UN Security Council, taking over those of Britain and France. Being a part of the EU makes Britain less influential not more so.
Haven’t senior members of the British armed forces said we would be safer in the EU?
A letter orchestrated by 10 Downing Street in February 2016 was signed by a number of senior former members of the armed forces: however it spectacularly backfired when it turned out that one of the signatories had not in fact signed at all. General Sir Michael Rose had not only not given his permission to be included but said that, “sovereignty and security are intrinsically linked and in the recent years we’ve seen the EU erode our sovereignty”. [xvi] No. 10 was forced to issue a humiliating apology to Sir Michael.
Other respected figures have come out in favour of leaving the EU, including Colonel Richard Kemp, former Army Commander in Afghanistan who wrote an article in the Sunday Express (28th February 2016) that, “NATO is our military alliance not the EU. By leaving the EU we will gain far greater control of our borders and better confront those challenges that have the potential to undermine the fabric of our society.”