Author Archives: The Voice

Yesterday, Nick Clegg made a keynote speech at the National Liberal Club outlining the reasons Britain should stay in the EU. He tore the Leave campaign apart for its false figures and assertions. One widely quoted line is that Boris Johnson is “Trump with a thesaurus.” But that’s not all he said. He was very clear that the EU, including the single market, had had British influence at its heart. It’s not something that was imposed on us. We helped create it – and it’s been good for us.

And in the modern era, being in the European Union has also helped us to flourish. Britain today is a major world power.

We are one of the world’s most powerful economies;

we are a cultural powerhouse;

our capital is one of the world’s most popular destinations;

our universities are among the very best on the planet;

our businesses lead the world in everything from computer games to wind power.

If being part of the EU was such a drag on our prospects, as the Brexiteers claim, how come we have achieved all this whilst being part of the European Community and the EU for the last 41 years?

Nick Clegg:"Europe gives us the strength in numbers that we need to fight the global challenges we face" #INtogether pic.twitter.com/6gb3n04MCr

— Team #INtogether (@LDINtogether) June 3, 2016

He argues that we need the safety in numbers that the EU provides to cope with the challenges of the 21st century:

The 21st century world is one of profound global challenges: climate change, extremism, mass migration, the globalised economy.

The European Union gives us the strength in numbers that we need to meet those challenges.

All over the world countries are responding to the challenges of a globalised economy by coming together to form trading blocs – from Nafta to Asean, from Mercosur to the Pacific Alliance.

In the EU we are part of a single market with the enormous clout that 500 million consumers gives us.

That clout allows us to go toe to toe with the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, the Russians and everybody else on the global stage.

Going it alone would mean we are trying to compete in that landscape with the much smaller clout of 60-odd million people.

Here’s the speech in full: