London Mayor Boris Johnson wrote an op-ed piece in The Telegraph concerning President Obama’s future visit to the U.K., where he'll attempt to persuade the British people to stay in the European Union (EU).
Needless to say, Johnson’s words were not complimentary.
In the lengthy statement, Johnson wrote:
Sometime in the next couple of months, we are told that President Obama himself is going to arrive in this country, like some deus ex machina, to pronounce on the matter. Air Force One will touch down; a lectern with the presidential seal will be erected. The British people will be told to be good to themselves, to do the right thing. We will be informed by our most important ally that it is in our interests to stay in the EU, no matter how flawed we may feel that organisation to be. Never mind the loss of sovereignty; never mind the expense and the bureaucracy and the uncontrolled immigration.
The op-ed came two weeks after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a referendum will be held on June 23 of this year to determine whether Britain should stay in the EU.
Johnson went on to point out Obama's hypocrisy by explaining how Americans would never accept the restrictions being a part of the EU brings.
Think of NAFTA – the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement – that links the US with Canada and Mexico. Suppose it were constituted on the lines of the EU, with a commission and a parliament and a court of justice. Would the Americans knuckle under – to a NAFTA commission and parliament generating about half their domestic law? Would they submit to a NAFTA court of justice – supreme over all US institutions – and largely staffed by Mexicans and Canadians whom the people of the US could neither appoint nor remove? No way. The idea is laughable, and completely alien to American traditions. So why is it essential for Britain to comply with a system that the Americans would themselves reject out of hand? Is it not a blatant case of “Do as I say, but not as I do”?
He later continued:
In urging us to embed ourselves more deeply in the EU’s federalising structures, the Americans are urging us down a course they would never dream of going themselves. That is because they are a nation conceived in liberty. They sometimes seem to forget that we are quite fond of liberty, too.