Express – by Alison Little & Martyn Brown
The Prime Minister made the hugely provocative pro-EU speech on the day Croatia became the Union’s 28th member state as he toured the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
Talking to Kazakh students in the capital Astana he said: “Britain has always supported the widening of the EU.
“Our vision of the EU is that it should be a large trading and co-operating organisation that effectively stretches, as it were, from the Atlantic to the Urals.
“We have a wide vision of Europe and have always encouraged countries that want to join.”
The Urals mark the unofficial border between Europe and Asia in Russia.
His remarks indicate that he believes that Ukraine, once known as the bread basket of the USSR, should be admitted to the EU.
They come as British MPs prepare for a crunch vote on an in/out referendum this Friday.
They also appear to ignore fears about a huge influx of Romanians and Bulgarians when the restrictions on their rights to work in Britain are lifted early next year.
Conservative MP and eurosceptic Douglas Carswell said: “I am sure the thought of hundreds of thousands and millions of Kazakhs and Ukrainians coming to Britain under the EU’s freedom of movement rules will help people decide in an in/out referendum.
“I think the Prime Minister should be talking about swapping places with these countries.
“We leave the EU and they can have our empty space.”
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage warned that millions of extra migrants would get access to the UK if Mr Cameron’s “dreams” came true.
Ukip leader Farage was quick to criticise David Cameron’s ‘dreams’ of the EUHe said: “People in the past have had dreams of a Europe that stretched from the Atlantic and the Urals.
“It is not a dream that this country, rightly, has ever shared.”
Mr Cameron has been a staunch advocate of Turkey joining the EU and last week welcomed interest by Serbia. Adding Turkey (70 million), Ukraine (45 million), Kazakhstan (17 million), and Serbia (7 million) would add 139 million to the EU’s population.
Coalition tensions also flared yesterday, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg saying the Lib Dems would always be “the party of ‘in’” in any referendum battle, while the Tories looked increasingly like “the party of ‘out’”.
Lib Dem and Labour MPs are set to abstain on Friday’s Tory backbench bill which require a referendum by the end of 2017.
Meanwhile Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable said yesterday that leaving the EU is “not a realistic economic option for this country”.
“I understand that the E.U. was a failure, but now we have to opportunity to turn it into a much bigger failure, and that’s why you elected me”.
Actually Jolly Roger, there was a Pirate Party, (pirateparty.org.uk) a new startup that only fielded candidates in one or maybe two UK constituencies, but it’s a beginning. The Pirates are on the march. I voted for them simply because since I first read Treasure Island when I was about 10, I’ve been a fan of pirates.
Yes, let’s just all extend the EU to Asia and then to Africa and then to the Americas and so on and so forth until we get our One World Government/Order. How’s that sound?
Crazy Dave needs to be strung up and hung for treason just as quickly as Barry does.