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Introduction: neoliberalism meets the will of the people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2023

Victor Seidler
Affiliation:
Goldsmiths, University of London
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Summary

Making sense of Brexit

Mounting pressure from various quarters forced Theresa May to deliver a fuller statement than she had originally been prepared to make about what she meant by ‘Brexit means Brexit’, which had been her mantra ever since the referendum vote on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union (EU). On Tuesday 12 January 2017, standing in front of an array of Union Jacks that might remind you of the days of the British empire, she addressed an audience of EU dignitaries and British business and political leaders at Lancaster House in central London, saying that she had decided that Britain would cut its ties with the European single market of 500,000,000 people, as well as with the customs union, so that it could make its own way in the world and have the power to make its own trading agreements with the rest of the world.

There were hints of a new Atlanticist deal in which Britain might somehow ally itself with the United States (US) in framing its new position in the world. Britain was now setting out on a new path. Previously, under successive prime ministers, it had sought to define itself as part of a European trading block and a country ‘at the heart of Europe’, as a means of repositioning itself in a post-colonial world where it could no longer depend on its imperial legacy – even though it remained firmly wedded to the ideal of the Commonwealth.

May argued that ‘A good deal is the economically rational thing that both Britain and the EU should aim for.’ But she also gave a warning, adopting a headmistress tone that might seem to echo that of Margaret Thatcher, who had spoken in the same room (perhaps her spirit was hovering): ‘But I must be clear. Britain wants to remain a good friend and neighbour to Europe. Yet I know there are some voices calling for a punitive deal that punishes Britain and discourages other countries from taking the same path. That would be an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe. And it would not be the act of a friend.’

The appeal to friendship is striking, but so also is the language that somehow positions Britain outside of Europe so that it is no longer included among ‘the countries of Europe’.

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Chapter
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Making Sense of Brexit
Democracy, Europe and Uncertain Futures
, pp. 1 - 20
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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