London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday came out fighting for Britain to leave the EU, warning that the country had “given away control of our destiny.”
The charismatic politician electrified the campaign for the June 23 referendum by declaring last weekend that he backed a so-called “Brexit,” positioning himself against British Prime Minister David Cameron.
After a few days out of the headlines, Johnson set out his stall in two newspaper interviews — and hit back at the prime minister, a long-term rival in their Conservative Party.
He said that recent reforms Cameron secured to welfare payments to EU workers seemed “unlikely, frankly” to reduce the numbers of new arrivals as Cameron had argued.
Johnson, who has the rare ability to appeal to voters outside his own party, told the Daily Telegraph that he was “massively pro-migrants” and proud to lead a city as diverse as London.
However, he added: “The numbers coming in puts massive pressure on housing and other provisions, such as social services and education. What we need is managed immigration.”
He said his campaign would focus on challenging warnings that leaving the EU would bring economic chaos, while acknowledging there would be an “initial period of dislocation and uncertainty.”
“I will do my absolute best to dismiss ‘Project Fear,’ which I think is nonsense. Britain could have a really great future, with a more dynamic economy and a happier population,” Johnson told the Times newspaper.
This week, Cameron condemned an idea seemingly mooted by Johnson that a vote to leave the EU was not final, and instead could be a negotiating tactic to win further concessions from Brussels.
Johnson insisted that “out is out,” adding: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It is not going to come around again.”
“The fundamental problem is that we have given away control of our destiny in too many areas,” he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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