Jeremy Clarkson is in, Katie Hopkins is out – who’s said what so far on Europe?
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Version 0 of 1. Last week, Barack Obama arrived in the UK and promptly weighed in on the EU referendum debate, urging voters to back the remain campaign. He’s far from the first to share his opinion – but will any of the other notable people to have spoken out have such an impact? Ian Botham In a headline: HE’S GOING IN TO BAT FOR HIS BELIEFS What he says: Money we give to the EU “gets swallowed up by waste and corruption”. Europhobe credentials: Loves to shoot French partridges. Lambasted French authorities when he was banned from collecting money on the streets during a charity walk – with elephants – through the Alps. Campaigning experience: Founder member of You Forgot The Birds, pressure group in which the shooting lobby puts its claws into the RSPB. Intervention impact: 2/10. “I played alongside teammates and against opposition from all over the world – from India, Australia, the Caribbean. Countries like these are our natural friends.” And? Jeremy Clarkson In a headline: CLARKS IN What he says: “I crave a United States of Europe with one currency, one army and one type of plug.” Europhile credentials: Adores the long and winding roads over the Alps (preferably in a high-performance car). Campaigning experience: Astutely courts public favour: more than one million people petitioned to reinstate Clarkson to Top Gear despite him punching a producer. Intervention impact: 2/10. Was Clarkson’s support for his old mate David Cameron an early April fool? Katie Hopkins In a headline: HOP IT What she says: “There is no European Union left to leave.” Europhobe credentials: Was questioned by police under caution over allegations of inciting racial hatred after she called refugees moving through Europe cockroaches. Campaigning experience: Won 0.6% of the votes cast when she stood as an independent MEP in 2009. Intervention impact: 0/10. Her application to join Ukip is reported to have been repeatedly rejected. Eddie Izzard In a headline: CROSS-BORDER DRESSING What he says: “The EU is like a huge rock festival: everyone has colour-coded passes and there are no wars.” Europhile credentials: His self-billing as a “British European” is no empty boast: he performs comic sets in both German and French. Campaigning experience: Izzard sure knows how to pick a winner, backing campaigns for the euro, a “yes” vote in the AV referendum and to elect Andy Burnham as Labour leader. Intervention impact: 5/10. Marathon running is more popular than running for office. Sir Michael Caine In a headline: NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT I’M SORT OF CERTAIN What he says: “You cannot be dictated to by thousands of faceless civil servants.” Europhobe credentials: Played a grumpy, Guardian-reading composer in a Swiss sanatorium in Paolo Sorrentino’s impeccably European film, Youth. Campaigning experience: Pro-national service Tory voter, who has dabbled with Labour and delivered swinging verdicts on anyone who dares raise taxes. Says Britain under Labour in the 1970s was “a communist country without a dictator.” Intervention impact: 5/10. Uncertainty may have endeared him to floating voters. Emma Thompson In a headline: LUVVIE LUVVIE LUVVIE, IN IN IN! What she says: We would be crazy to leave the EU when Britain is “a tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island”. Europhile credentials: Stars in Alone in Berlin, adapted from Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel about a German act of resistance to the Nazis in wartime Berlin. Filmed in English, of course. Campaigning experience: Human rights activist and environmentalist: fights for refugees, Aids victims and against Heathrow’s third runway. Intervention impact: 3/10. Thompson’s enthusiasm for Europe received a killer comeback from ex-Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom, who said: “May I volunteer to be the first to spank her silly bottom?” The Queen In a headline: IT’S MA’AM WOT WON IT What one says: [“angrily”, said a “senior political source”; she never said it, according to official sources] “I don’t understand Europe.” Europhile credentials: Of the highest rank. Family suffused with Germans. Married a Greek-born Prince of Denmark and Greece who is also a little bit German. Speaks fluent French. Opens her presents on Christmas Eve, following the German tradition of her great-great-grandfather. Campaigning experience: Not supposed to have political views and far too wise to express them, but meets the PM every week. Intervention impact (if ever she did): 10/10. |