‘The people have spoken’

In the months that followed the referendum we witnessed a period of intense political uncertainty. There was widespread anxiety across Europe that the political earthquakes of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as president of the US could lead to the authoritarian populist Geert Wilders’ election in the Netherlands and the victory of Marine Le Pen’s National Front party in France. There were doubts, if these events were to come about, whether the EU could survive in its present form, and fears that the crisis that had been created by Brexit would only deepen.

But at the same time, possibly provoked by Brexit, there would also be an opportunity to shape an alternative vision of the EU that made it more responsive to the democratic will of nation-states and more willing to respond to the changing needs of Europe in the face of globalisation and its impact on industrialised regions. Across Europe so many people seemed to feel ‘left behind’, marginalised and angry at political elites who had identified themselves with liberal, globalised cosmopolitanism. The elites seemed to have little awareness of what was happening in their own countries or of the deep sense of unfairness and injustice that was felt by so many people. The latter had found expression in populist and xenophobic political parties; at some level people were also appealing for a different, more equal form of capitalist economy and society that recognised their needs as citizens.

There was a moment when Theresa May’s assumption of the prime ministership seemed to signal a changed political mood, and the words she spoke outside No 10 Downing Street on 13 July 2016 seemed to express a determination to break with the politics of Cameron and its inequalities of wealth and power. She sought to address these inequalities and spoke directly to the lack of opportunities for young Afro-Caribbean people who can’t find work and who are discriminated against in the labour market. She held out a vision that was populist in its expression and insisted that the ‘people had spoken’ and had given the government an instruction to take Britain out of the EU.