Abstract

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, on a speech given on 23rd Jan 2013, has put himself on a collision course with the rest of Europe by pledging a high-risk gamble “in or out” referendum on Britain’s EU membership by 2017. He is demanding special privileges for his country and putting Britain's partners under pressure. He said he wanted Britain to stay at the heart of the EU, but wants to re-negotiate what he sees as “restrictive EU rules for his country.” Cameron illustrated that “Britain’s national interest is best served in a flexible, adaptable and open European Union and that such a European Union is best with Britain in it.” The Tories triumph in 2015 General Election and the rise of nationalist movements which are anti-Europeanization and against integration; including UKIP which obtained 12.6% of the votes in the election, and pro-Euro Scotland National Party that won 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland; alarms the Whitehall about the loop for the promised referendum. Hence, due to the significance of the Bloomberg speech, an analysis of that speech with the review of Britain and the EU relations is essential. Hence, this paper aims to scrutinize Cameron’s Bloomberg speech through a critical discourse analysis perspective. An integration of Norman Fairclough (2014), Lesley Jeffries (2010), and Michael Halliday (2013) were employed to evaluate the discourse in linguistic, interactions, interaction and social context, and social constructivism patterns.