If one speech can still inspire to this day, imagine what an organised movement can do
The renowned British fighting spirit can turn everything around and make Britain great again
The country is entering a turning point in its history. Readers have seen a few false dawns in their lives but there’s something about what is going on this time that is different.
This time, the slogans such as “It’s time for change”, “A new kind of politics”, or “A third way” from new political wannabe parties (or those who need to reinvent themselves) have been dwarfed by the “Enough is enough” mentality of a very large proportion of the British population and this time it’s coming from them. This time it’s being spontaneously driven from the grassroots.
The political party that can bottle that will find its product selling like there’s no tomorrow. Indeed, judging from our mailbag, some people are beginning to wonder if there will be a tomorrow if the government continues on its present track. Underlying the majority of these emails are positive messages, however. “At last!!” forms the start of many of these.
Defeatism didn’t win WWI or II, or the Falklands. The indomitable British fighting spirit did.
Like her or loathe her, few embodied this spirit more strongly than Margeret Thatcher
The speech of the late Baroness Thatcher in Bruges, Belgium has been invoked many times – by individuals of each side of the debate on European integration. Federalists have used it to justify their support for an EU superstate and empire, by selectively quoting short phrases.
In fact Margaret Thatcher’s speech became famous for its renunciation of the ‘European Community’ project. On the positive side she spoke of the opportunities, such as the “willing co-operation between independent, sovereign states”, “perusing policies that relate supply more closely to market requirements”, and the “need for the Community to encourage enterprise”.
On the other hand, her overriding message can not have been much clearer. She was firmly against the tyranny of the creation of one enormous country (as yet unnamed at that point, but which we now know as the European Union. We start with the speech on video. Below that are some selected quotations.
Baroness Thatcher’s ‘Bruges Speech’
in September 1988.
Selected excerpts
For readers unable to watch the video right now because of the environment they reading this in, we are also publishing the text of some quotes we have chosen from the full speech.
Summary
Some key excerpts from Baroness Thatcher’s Bruges Speech, 1988
The opening words
“Mr. Chairman, you have invited me to speak on the subject of Britain and Europe. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your courage. If you believe some of the things said and written about my views on Europe, it must seem rather like inviting Genghis Khan to speak on the virtues of peaceful coexistence!”
On the United Kingdom’s sacrifices for Europe
“But we British have in a very special way contributed to Europe. Over the centuries we have fought to prevent Europe from falling under the dominance of a single power. We have fought and we have died for her freedom.”
Other quotations from the speech
“The Community is not an end in itself. Nor is it an institutional device to be constantly modified according to the dictates of some abstract intellectual concept. Nor must it be ossified by endless regulation.”
“To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardise the objectives we seek to achieve.”
“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.”
“If we cannot reform those Community policies which are patently wrong or ineffective and which are rightly causing public disquiet, then we shall not get the public support for the Community’s future development.”
“The lesson of the economic history of Europe in the 70’s and 80’s is that central planning and detailed control do not work and that personal endeavour and initiative do. That a State-controlled economy is a recipe for low growth and that free enterprise within a framework of law brings better results.”
“Our aim should not be more and more detailed regulation from the centre: it should be to deregulate and to remove the constraints on trade.”
And finally
“Let Europe be a family of nations, understanding each other better, appreciating each other more, doing more together but relishing our national identity no less than our common European endeavour. Let us have a Europe which plays its full part in the wider world, which looks outward not inward, and which preserves that Atlantic community—that Europe on both sides of the Atlantic—which is our noblest inheritance and our greatest strength.”
Feeling inspired to fight back?
Now there are two ways to do this which we can recommend. There is Facts4EU, pumping out well-researched reports on a daily basis for almost 10 years. Tomorrow (14 Aug) GB News will be publishing the second part of their special asylum series which we have worked on with Facts4EU. (See below.) They lose money every day and will have to scale back significantly unless more of their thousands of readers donate to them.
Latest EU papers from Starmer’s ‘Re-set’ show we’re now going to be dragged back into the EU more rapidly than anyone thought. We need to re-build our teams – fast. If you want us to do this, please donate right now.
And now there’s another way you can make a difference
Secondly, there is our relatively new organisation we co-founded with some other like-minded organisations. Since our launch in July, (announced on GB News), Stand for Our Sovereignty has been a breath of fresh air for millions of people. It was created precisely to push back against the surrender of our sovereignty on a weekly basis by the current government – either to Brussels or to countries far away such as Mauritius, to which we are giving a crucial British strategic base which is part of the Chagos Peninsula, as well as over £30bn.
© Stand for Our Sovereignty 2025 – click to enlarge
Backed by a range of senior politicians from four different parties, with a superb legal team in support, Stand for Our Sovereignty (SOS) aims to take on the government via a variety of means. We urge all readers to join us now. The more Members, the louder the voice, and the more powerful and successful we will be in reversing what is going on.
Join us here – UK sovereignty needs you!
– very much welcomed – in addition to or instead of the above
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Membership will of course give you other benefits, which we will be outlining here as soon as possible. If you can’t afford to give us anything to help fund the work, you can still write to tell us you support the campaign here.
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Coming tomorrow…
Part II in our special Asylum Series for GB News. Not to be missed!
Main image: montage © Stand for Our Sovereignty 2025 and © Facts4EU.Org