1940 Winston Churchill addresses the nation on the radio:
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
1981 President Ronald Reagan gives a speech at the British Embassy in Washington on the visit of Margaret Thatcher:
“We’ve all heard the slogans, the end of the class struggle, the vanguard of the proletariat, the wave of the future, the inevitable triumph of socialism. Indeed, if there’s anything the Marxist-Leninists might not be forgiven for it is their willingness to bog the world down in tiresome cliches, a gaggle of bogus prophecies and petty superstitions. Prime Minister, everywhere one looks these days the cult of the state is dying, and I wonder if you and I and other leaders of the West should not now be looking toward bright, sunlit uplands and begin planning for a world where our adversaries are remembered only for their role in a sad and rather bizarre chapter in human history.”
2011 George Osborne addresses Conservative Party Conference:
“We know that the sacrifices our country makes will not be made in vain. That the difficult choices we have made will not have been made for nothing. We do all this for a better Britain, and a stronger economy. To which everyone can contribute; from which everyone will gain. An economy that works for all. I don’t pretend to you that these are not difficult days and that there are not difficult days ahead; but together we will ride out the storm. And together we will move into the calmer, brighter seas beyond.”
2016 Boris Johnson launches his case against EU membership in a speech in London:
“For many of us who are now deeply sceptical, the evolution has been roughly the same: we began decades ago to query the anti-democratic absurdities of the EU... Thanks to the referendum we find that a door has magically opened in our lives. We can see the sunlit meadows beyond. I believe we would be mad not to take this once in a lifetime chance to walk through that door.”
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
1981 President Ronald Reagan gives a speech at the British Embassy in Washington on the visit of Margaret Thatcher:
“We’ve all heard the slogans, the end of the class struggle, the vanguard of the proletariat, the wave of the future, the inevitable triumph of socialism. Indeed, if there’s anything the Marxist-Leninists might not be forgiven for it is their willingness to bog the world down in tiresome cliches, a gaggle of bogus prophecies and petty superstitions. Prime Minister, everywhere one looks these days the cult of the state is dying, and I wonder if you and I and other leaders of the West should not now be looking toward bright, sunlit uplands and begin planning for a world where our adversaries are remembered only for their role in a sad and rather bizarre chapter in human history.”
2011 George Osborne addresses Conservative Party Conference:
“We know that the sacrifices our country makes will not be made in vain. That the difficult choices we have made will not have been made for nothing. We do all this for a better Britain, and a stronger economy. To which everyone can contribute; from which everyone will gain. An economy that works for all. I don’t pretend to you that these are not difficult days and that there are not difficult days ahead; but together we will ride out the storm. And together we will move into the calmer, brighter seas beyond.”
2016 Boris Johnson launches his case against EU membership in a speech in London:
“For many of us who are now deeply sceptical, the evolution has been roughly the same: we began decades ago to query the anti-democratic absurdities of the EU... Thanks to the referendum we find that a door has magically opened in our lives. We can see the sunlit meadows beyond. I believe we would be mad not to take this once in a lifetime chance to walk through that door.”
