The negotiators led by the persuasive Halifax felt that Hitler had the upper hand and to stand up to him would lead to more deaths. We can get a negotiated settlement he intoned. Hitler won’t be that bad to us if we negotiate now. He will be fair.
The other side, led by Churchill said, no, Hitler can’t be trusted. We must fight. One of the most remarkable scenes is (spoiler alert) when Churchill goes on the London Underground and meets real people. They overwhelmingly say we must never give in to Hitler. Never, never, never. Did that really happen? Probably not. But Churchill must have taken "soundings", an early version of the focus groups the Blair government was so fond of. So on one hand the professional politicians and military who wanted to go one way, and the people who wanted something else. The people got their way. And five years later it resulted in victory.
While there is no comparison of the evil and wickedness of the Third Reich and the EU, it is almost like a parable. On leaving the EU, politicians on one side say, let us negotiate a deal, I’m sure the EU will be generous and reasonable towards us, let’s trust them. The other side says, let’s put markers in the sand, lines we will not cross.
Clearly some people haven’t learned anything from history. As Churchill said, "you can't negotiate with a tiger when your head is in its mouth".
