Barack Obama plans intervention in Britain's EU referendum

[Denzil_DC]

Barack Obama is planning to make “a big, public reach-out” to persuade British voters to stay inside the European Union, the chair of the US Senate foreign relations committee has revealed.

The plan emerged amid fears in Washington that the UK’s EU referendum is a dangerous gamble that could unravel with disastrous consequences for the entire continent.

His “reach out” is likely to focus on the need for the EU to stick together to combat the migration crisis and the growing threat of Russian aggression in the Baltics, Ukraine and Middle East.

But there are concerns in both Washington and London that an intervention by the US president has to be handled sensitively and could backfire unless it is pitched at the right geopolitical level.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/12/barack-obama-plans-eu-referendum-intervention

[Bad Dog]

1. He'll have to be really careful,

because there's nothing that pisses us off more than being told what to do by an American.

I reckon some people will vote to leave out of pure bloody mindedness.

[Denzil_DC]

2. Yeah.

It didn't go too well when he was wheedled by Cameron into intervening in the Scottish referendum.

It cuts both ways - remember a few US elections ago when the Guardian tried to get its readers to write to constituents in one US state imploring them not to vote Republican? The responses were almost uniformly incandescent, sometimes alarming, and not infrequently hilarious (contrary to the persistent myth, British teeth don't measure up that badly on a world scale nowadays, and in fact are generally better than American ones ...).

[Bad Dog]

3. I remember that very well.

He'd do better to keep schtum.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Not sure that's the best approach...

I myself switched from moderate Euro-scepticism to moderate but firm Euro-support in around 2003-2004, mainly because of Blair's collaboration with Bush. I thought that even with what I considered the excessive bureaucracy and over-centralization of the EU, it was an important bulwark against our becoming the 51st state under crazy warmongering Republican governments.

If I thought all presidents would be like Obama, I wouldn't worry so much (though even with Obama, I worry about things like the TTIP); but supposing, god forbid, Trump or Cruz gets to be president? - I would very much wish to shelter in the EU with all its faults! But if I really thought that Trump or Cruz would have more influence if we stay in the EU, I might reconsider; and that is why American intervention in the issue is a bad idea IMO.

There are by now a number of other reasons why I'd vote Remain - not wanting more economic upheaval at this time than necessary; the reactionary nature of most of the Leave campaign in the UK - do I really want the likes of Nigel Farage and the Daily Express getting their way in this country? But I think American intervention could well be counterproductive.

[Bad Dog]

5. Yup

I pretty much agree with everything you said.