Bloomberg speech
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The Bloomberg speech was a party political address on Europe given in 2013 by the then Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. Although during the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition, it was given without the support of the then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.
Composition
The speech was drafted by Edward Llewellyn, the Downing Street Chief of Staff, along with John Casson, Tim Kiddell and Helen Bower, with the opening few pages written by Clare Foges.[1]
Content
The speech on 23 January 2013 at Bloomberg London covered the UK's future relationship with Europe. The Prime Minister called for fundamental reform of the European Union and called for an in–out referendum to be held on the UK's membership:[2][3][4][5][6]
Simply asking the British people to carry on accepting a European settlement over which they have had little choice is a path to ensuring that when the question is finally put – and at some stage it will have to be – it is much more likely that the British people will reject the EU. That is why I am in favour of a referendum. I believe in confronting this issue – shaping it, leading the debate. Not simply hoping a difficult situation will go away.
Subsequent events
The Conservative Party included the referendum in their manifesto for the 2015 general election and it was then held in 2016.
See also
- 2015–2016 United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership
- 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum
References
- ^ Cameron, David (2019). For the Record. United Kingdom: William Collins. p. 411. ISBN 9780008239282.
- ^ "EU Speech at Bloomberg". UK Gov.
- ^ "Is it "The Bloomberg Speech"?". BBC News.
- ^ "Read the speech that was the start of the end of David Cameron". The Independent. 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
- ^ "David Cameron's EU speech – full text". The Guardian.
- ^ "David Cameron's EU speech in full". The Telegraph.