History
The Democracy Movement was founded by Lady Annabel Goldsmith in January 1999. She became its President and her son, businessman Robin Birley, served as the organisation's chairman until 2004. Democracy Movement originated from the ideas and campaign of the late James Goldsmith's Referendum Party in 1998. At its launch, describing the campaign as an effort "in memory of Jimmy", Lady Annabel said:
I'm not anti-European - my husband was half European and my children are a quarter French. I just don't want to be governed by Brussels, and I don't think people want to give up their sovereignty. Jimmy used to describe it as sitting at the top of the mountain watching a train crash - that was like us heading for the European superstate.
The DM is funded by donations from grassroots supporters although the Goldsmith family and the Eurosceptic businessman Paul Sykes have made large campaign donations in the past.
Read more about this topic: Democracy Movement
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)