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Britain’s former field marshals, generals, admirals and lieutenant generals have been deployed on the front line of the Brexit debate. A group of the UK’s most distinguished senior veterans’ published a brisk and succinct letter in The Telegraph in February arguing that ‘Bremain’ would be the safer position for the UK’s national security. The impact of the letter was somewhat blunted by the subsequent revelation that one of the signatories had not actually agreed to add his name.
National security is now well-entrenched as a key theme in the referendum debate and David Cameron, the British prime minister, has placed this front and centre in his pitch to the electorate to support his renegotiated terms for membership. The logic of the security argument is that in a time of international instability and uncertainty an exit from the EU would be foolhardy.
