Brexit Means Brexit – But What Does Brexit Mean?
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905817702740 |
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
APRIL 2017 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 3
Brexit Means
Brexit – But
What Does
Brexit Mean?
‘Brexit means Brexit’, Theresa
May famously declared in the
wake of June’s referendum on
European Union membership.
Evidently the Prime Minister liked the
phrase – she spent the next six months
repeating it in answer to just about any
question on the UK’s exit from the EU.
But increasingly, politics scholars – and
the general public – are asking what Brexit
really means. At the time of writing, on
the eve of the triggering of Article 50, we
still seem no clearer on the details of how
the UK will leave the EU, and what kind of
relationship we will have with the other
27 member states once we are outside
the union.
Such questions pose great uncertainty for
business, but also for politics. In this issue’s
cover feature, Andrew Gamble asks how
leaving the EU will change British politics,
and argues that Britain is likely to find itself
stranded uneasily between Europe and
America in a new era of trade wars and
protectionism.
Brexit could also have profound
implications for the United Kingdom itself,
writes Kevin Meagher. While England
and Wales voted to leave, Scotland and
Northern Ireland opted to stay in the EU.
The circuitous, 310-mile Irish border could
yet prove a sticking point in any Brexit
deal, with so far no clear plans for how to
manage effectively a boundary that saw
some of the worst violence of the Troubles.
Scots are pushing for a new referendum
on independence from Britain. A
referendum on Irish unity is unlikely in the
short term, but seems inevitable, too.
Brexit was, for some, a chance to reassert
British parliamentary sovereignty. But
Andrew Glencross argues that Brexit rests
on a profound contradiction – ‘the will of
the people’ censured Westminster for its EU
policy, but the same government is now
being entrusted to craft a better alternative.
What bet a general election? Or a second
EU referendum?
The UK’s exit from the European Union
does not just beg domestic political
questions. The EU is facing serious
challenges of its own. Nationalist populist
parties are surging in opinion polls across
the continent. Paul Hainsworth reports from
France, where May’s presidential election is
shaping up to be a battle royale between
the far right Front Nationale and the centre.
Of course, Brexit was not the only major
political earthquake to hit in 2016. In the
wake of Trump and the rise of the right –
which few predicted – David Farrell asks
where the study of politics goes from
here, and finds that the discipline needs to
fundamentally reassess how it measures –
and thinks about – the political world.
In our regular In Focus slot, Benjamin D.
Hennig maps how Donald Trump won the
White House despite losing the popular
vote, while Jon-Christopher Bua reports
from Washington on President Trump’s
turbulent opening months in office.
Trump’s victory has focused attention
once again on disparities within the US
electoral system. Wayne Getz, Kevin Baas,
Colin J. Carlson, Eric Dougherty, and Oliver
Muellerklein look at how a fairer election
process might be built.
Elsewhere, Rekha Diwakar reports from
India, the world’s largest democracy, where
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra
Modi remains popular but faces electoral
challenges with a number of key votes
in the coming months. In our occasional
Controversy slot, Chris Allen examines
the use of the Prevent anti-radicalisation
strategy in universities, and argues that
the tactic could actually be pushing
communities further apart.
Riding high in the polls and with little
sign of opposition inside or outside her
party, Theresa May looks set to remain a
dominant figure in British politics. But just
how different is her style from that of her
predecessor David Cameron? Ben Williams
looks at whether Ms May’s approach to
government really is as distinctive as she
promised. Finally, in the Last Word, Axel
Kaehne argues for new thinking around
funding social care in the UK.
If the opening months are anything to go
by, 2017 is likely to be every bit as politically
tumultuous as 2016. As we enter a new
year, I want to take the opportunity to
thank you all for your continuing support.
If you would like to join the debates or
contribute to
Political Insight
get in touch
or visit www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus.
Peter Geoghegan
Editor
(editor@politicalinsightmagazine.com)
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