Sir, – Boris Johnson is both cynical and disingenuous in his selective reading of history ("Boris Johnson says EU on same doomed path as Hitler", May 16th). The most strident advocate of European economic and political integration of the postwar period was the redoubtable British imperialist, statesman and former leader of Mr Johnson's own party, Winston Churchill.
At Zurich in 1946 Churchill argued for “the re-creation of the European family (based upon) a partnership between France and Germany” and the building of a “United States of Europe”. He initiated the Hague Conference of May 1948, whose specific objective was the promotion of a united Europe and to which he headed a 140-member British delegation.
This conference led directly to the setting up of the Council of Europe Assembly in Strasbourg in 1949. On August 11th of that year, Churchill addressed an open-air crowd of 20,000 in the city, so deeply symbolic of the fractious Franco-German relationship, which called for enhanced European co-operation and integration.
In drawing a moral equivalence between Hitler’s destructive agenda and that of his most implacable enemy, Churchill, Mr Johnson does a cynical disservice to the cause he legitimately espouses. – Yours, etc,
OILIBHÉAR Ó BRAONÁIN,
Kimmage,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Not dissimilar from the sin of “lugs-ury” for the term “luxury”, on the airwaves today my ears had to endure “Br-eggs-it” for Brexit.
Now wait for the runny omelette? – Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.