Did President Obama’s wading into the Brexit referendum during his stopover in Britain last week aid the pro-EU side, as many commentators claimed, or is it viewed by British voters as an improper intrusion into domestic affairs and bullying by a foreign leader? A new poll suggests the latter, and, ultimately, it may turn out that Obama’s intervention has angered many Brits, causing more to favor the “leave” camp rather than the “remain” side that wants to stay in the European Union.
The ICM polling firm found that 46 percent of British voters surveyed want the UK to leave while 44 per cent want to stay. “The result suggests that Barack Obama’s call for the UK to stay in the EU failed to shift support towards the Remain camp,” reported a story for April 28 in the UK’s Express.
“Interviews for the ICM internet tracker poll were carried out during the US President’s visit to Britain last week during which he claimed Britain would lose global influence by leaving the EU and fall to the back of the queue in negotiations for a US trade deal,” the Express story noted. Further noting the unfavorable Obama impact, the article reported:
Jennifer Bottomley, of ICM, said Mr Obama’s remarks may even have strengthened the resolve of Brexit supporters to vote in the referendum on June 23.
She said: “Interestingly, we do see a hardening of resolve among Leave supporters when it comes to turnout, with 80 per cent saying they are absolutely certain to vote, compared with 75 per cent who said the same in our first April poll, perhaps reflecting a sense of displeasure about Mr Obama’s comments.”
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President Obama’s attack on the Brexit is one of the latest scare tactics in a concerted campaign of fear by the globalist establishment, which views the June 23 referendum as an immense threat to their long-planned New World Order. As we have reported previously (see article links below), the advocates of one-world government at the IMF, United Nations, G20, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum, central banks, and other centers of globalist influence have been issuing frantic fulminations claiming all manner of disastrous results for Britain should voters opt in favor of exiting the EU.
However, the ICM poll may indicate that the non-stop anti-Brexit fear campaign is failing. The pro-Brexit side appears to be easily winning the debate on the very heated issue of refugees/migration, and is also making a strong case on economic matters as well, despite the anti-Brexit claims that economic calamity would follow a decision to exit the EU.
The Leave side won the recent debate, sponsored by The Spectator at London’s famous Palladium, between three prominent spokesmen for each side. Speaking in favor of the Brexit (Britain exiting the EU) were: Nigel Farage, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP); Daniel Hannan, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Conservative Party and author of A Doomed Marriage: Britain and Europe; and Kate Hoey, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the British Labour Party. Speaking for remaining in the EU were: Nick Clegg, a member of the Liberal Democrat Party and a former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom; Liz Kendall, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the British Labour Party; and Chuka Umunna, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the British Labour Party.
Nigel Farage and Daniel Hannan, both of whom are exciting speakers and exceptional debaters, clearly dominated the debate, outshining and out-arguing the “remain” side. Farage, noted for his forensic wit, tweaked the “Remainians” for their elitist ties to Goldman Sachs, the IMF, and Obama. He said:
The Remain side — or the ‘Remainians’, as I think they are now known — have clubbed together. They’ve got Goldman Sachs, they’ve got Siemens, they’ve got the IMF, they’ve got Obama, telling us if we don’t remain a part of the European Union, dreadful things will happen to us. They are putting the leave camp on the backfoot to try and put us off the main arguments in this referendum. The fact is, we don’t have a good deal. Do not believe them when they say that we can’t access the single market. Even in the worst case scenario where Britain has to rely on WTO rules, the cost of tariffs would be less than our next contribution. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to vote to take back the independence and control of this country’s laws, this country’s courts and this country’s borders.
“When a European law is made, there is nothing we can do to reverse it,” he charged. “There is no direct democratic accountability in this [EU] system.”
“Net migration is now running at ten times the post-war average,” noted Farage. “We have to build a new house in this country every seven minutes just to cope. We are short tens of thousands of primary school places for this September. What we need to do is take back control of our borders. Let’s put in place, post-Brexit, a sensible, normal immigration policy. Let’s have people who haven’t got criminal records. And let’s have people who will add and contribute to the economy but let’s have them in sensible numbers.”
Daniel Hannan (see video interview with The New American here) invited British voters to make himself and Nigel Farage “redundant” by voting to exit the EU so they would no longer need to serve in the European Parliament. “Tonight, I’m inviting you to make me redundant — and, into the bargain, make Nigel redundant,” he said. “And I wouldn’t be doing if I were not confident that there will be plenty of openings for newly-unemployed MEPs in the boom that would follow our exit from the European Union.”
“Why do we tie ourselves to the one part of the world that is not experiencing significant economic growth?” Hannan continued. “The eurozone, incredibly, was the same size at the end of last year as it was in 2006. Every continent on this planet has grown over the past decade except Antartica and the European Union. We are a trading people. We don’t sit on great natural resources here, we have to make our way by what we buy and sell; that means we have to be where the customers are. And that means as long as we’re in the European Union, we cannot sign independent trade deals with non-EU countries.”
Hannan continued, answering the charge of “isolationism” that is invariably thrown at Brexit supporters:
No one is talking about drawbridges or isolation. Nowhere else in the world do countries apologise for wanting to live under their own laws. New Zealand is not about to join Australia. Japan is not applying to join China — and do you hear anyone complaining about these bigoted Sino-sceptics in Tokyo? It is a natural healthy thing for a democracy to live under its own laws whilst trading with every other country in the world. The United Kingdom is the world’s fifth-largest country, its fourth-largest military power. How much bigger do we have to be before we have the confidence to raise our eyes to more distant horizons?
Kate Hoey of the left-wing Labour Party made an impassioned appeal to liberty and self-governance in her pro-Brexit statement, calling for a “country free from future servitude.” “Our basic right is our right to make laws,” she declared. “I don’t believe you can trust people in power if they can’t be removed by elections. No one can deny that the EU’s government, the Commission, is unelected and cannot be removed by any of us through elections. That fact alone is enough to reject the EU. It’s not socialist or democratic — the EU is anti-democratic. Its principals are those of a free market, but not of a political system. The EU’s purpose is to rule in the smooth running of a corporatist economy.”
“At least when I oppose Tory policies, I can vote on them,” she continued. ”We can’t do this with the EU. The EU is an attempt to replace the democratic power of the people with a permanent administration in the interests of big business. Everything else is a smokescreen. It’s very clear why Obama was threatening us. The EU can never be reformed. What does Leave look like? It looks like all the other 169 countries in the world, most of them with true democratic accountability. Let us be clear, there is no certainty in remaining in the EU. We need to set our country free from future servitude.”
In another important televised Brexit debate sponsored by Intelligence Squared, MEPs Daniel Hannan and Nigel Farage again provided devastating arguments for the Brexit, this time against Leon Brittan, the former vice president of the European Commission (and currently vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank) and Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJvwXUgDeSg
Photo of President Obama: AP Images
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(VIDEO) UK’s Referendum for Leaving EU — Daniel Hannan, MEP, interview with TNA
From Brexit to Swexit: Will Sweden Follow If Britain Exits EU?
Obama-Merkel Push TTIP, as Support for Transatlantic Union Tanks
Brexit Panic: CFR, Media Step Up Campaign to Scare British Voters
WikiLeaks: IMF Plans New Economic Crisis Before Brexit Vote
Dirty Campaign to Stop Brit EU Exit: Refugee Deluge, Interrogating Schoolkids, Hiding Tax Hikes
UK’s Cameron, Osborne Urge G20 to Scare Brits to Vote Against EU Exit
