European Movement UK<\/a>, which attracted a full room at a conference where attendances have been notably sparse. He attacked extremist voices within his own party, called Reform \u201cequivalents to the fascists of the \u201930s\u201d and spoke up against Brexit and in favour of rejoining the European Union.<\/p>\nHeseltine began by talking about uncomfortable parallels with the past. He said: \u201cThe rise of fascism found its followers from the top to the bottom of European society in Germany, Italy and Spain, whilst Mosley marched his followers through London\u2019s East End. It required Churchill\u2019s iron determination to stop his Conservative colleagues seeking peace with Hitler.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen world war two ended, the universal view was that it must never be allowed to happen again\u2026 Churchill articulated the idea with the words \u2018we must create a kind of United States of Europe\u2019. Note his words; he said \u2018we\u2019 not \u2018they\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarold Macmillan set us off on our controversial post-imperial journey; Ted Heath secured our accession to the treaty of Rome. Margaret Thatcher\u2019s greatest achievement was to help create the European single market; John Major secured the Maastricht compromise that prevented free movement and kept us out of the single currency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked for them all and remain convinced of the arguments in favour of Europe. If the Conservatives want to return to power they would do well to remember what our party achieved then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am dismayed by the drift of events in world politics. The economic collapse of 2008 and the Covid crisis have seriously contributed to the lack of confidence in governments and the right wing equivalents to the fascists of the \u201930s are back on the march: Le Pen in France, AfD in Germany, Fdl in Italy, Vox in Spain and conspicuously Reform in this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of President Trump\u2019s language in America coincides with words here in Europe. The immigrant has replaced the Jew as the problem which needs a solution, although recent events here have cast a dark shadow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no question that we need effective control of our borders but we must recognise that they are Europe\u2019s too, and we should join them in creating secure frontiers everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, noting the Tories\u2019 current dismal opinion polling, he said: \u201cIt is a long way to the next election but there is danger in a strategy that is mixing up the immigration problem with our wider relations with our European neighbours. The danger is clearly revealed in another set of polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of people aged below 50 who think it was right for us to leave Europe is less than 20 per cent, and with the 18-to-24-year-olds it is only 13 per cent. The new cohort of 16-17-year-olds will reinforce this position, but only if we ensure that they are properly informed. Overall, the latest polls tell us that 56 per cent now believe it was a mistake to leave. Only 31 per cent believe it was right. The tide is turning.<\/p>\n
\u201cA stark warning comes when you look at the age group of the present Conservative supporters and see how weighted it is towards older voters. If the Conservative Party ever hopes for reelection, it must remember its previous successful periods in government, build on those successes \u2013 and the policies that achieved them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heseltine consluded by telling delegates: \u201cAbove all, we must make clear that we will never have any part in the populist extremism of Nigel Farage. We have to deal with President Trump for the next three years. We don\u2019t need his mouthpiece anywhere near No. 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Never mind Bobby J as the next Tory leader \u2013 what about Hezza?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the same day that Robert Jenrick defended his own vile language about Handsworth (\u201cI didn\u2019t see another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,527,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-481021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-conservative-party","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115334397568980583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}