Margaret Thatcher Bruges Speech
She starts by taking head on the differing british and european views of what european means.
Margaret thatcher bruges speech. Speech to the college of europe the bruges speech film embargoed until 1730. Last week was the thirtieth anniversary of the bruges speech by the then prime minister margaret thatcher. In a fiery speech delivered to the college of europe in 1988 mrs thatcher criticised the new priorities on display in brussels and warned against the introduction of collectivism.
Margaret thatcher s response came in her bruges speech. Prime minister rector your excellencies ladies and gentlemen. Mt had planned to use an autocue but the layout of the venue a hall with scarcely anyone in front of her the audience flanking her on either side made autocue inappropriate so she spoke from a paper text which may be read here.
Over at the ft i did a piece on the anniversary contending that the speech was not the start of the road to brexit a view put forward by a number of pundits. The bruges speech 20 september 1988. Nor is the european idea the property of any group or institution.
The punctuation and paragraphing adopted in the pamphlet have been used here but the text is that transcribed from tape by the coi. The speech began the transition by which the conservatives ceased to be the party of europe in british politics moving fitfully by lurches lunges and sidesteps to a position now known as euroscepticism. That speech by margaret thatcher to the college of europe in bruges in 1988 now reads like a complex mix of the visionary the prophetic the managerial and the constrained.
First may i thank you for giving me the opportunity to return to bruges and in very different circumstances from my last visit. Europe is not the creation of the treaty of rome. Events are too easily described as turning points or defining moments but mts speech at bruges in september 1988 is one that deserves the label.