Brexit: What the hell happens now?
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Author | Kevin Morrell |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12325 |
REVIEWS
Brexit: What the hell happens now?
Ian Dunt
Canbury Press, 2016, 192 pp., £5.59 (pbk), ISBN: 9780995497825
Promoted as being ‘for people who still believe in experts’, Ian Dunt’s inexpensive book is a clearly written and very
detailed account of potential implications following the majority vote for ‘Brexit’. It is no mean feat to be able to
accomplish both clarity and detail on this topic. Dunt outlines Byzantine complexities relating to memberships,
negotiations, tariffs and legislation in a way that makes these technical topics both interesting and accessible.
Throughout Brexit: What the hell happens now?, Dunt shuttles neatly up and down what Wright Mills called the ‘lad-
der of abstraction’–taking in big picture considerations of macro-politics as well as drilling down to detailed and
precise implications in particular settings.
Take, for instance, the complexities of classifying goods for the purposes of trade in customs agreements. Dunt
illustrates this rather abstract, macro-consideration with a great example –in relation to ‘biscuits’alone there can be
‘504 potential recipes [of biscuit] to 27 kinds of product, leaving 13,608 categories of bakery or confectionery
goods, all with potentially different export rate duties’(p. 83). Devices like this do grab the reader, as does the open-
ing of the book with its filmic account of the ‘worst case scenario’for Brexit (pp. 9–17) and also ‘Britain’s current
destination’(p. 9): ‘31st March 2019 –Big Ben strikes midnight and Britain is outside the European Union …It is on
its own.’The cumulative effect of the book is to convey a simple message: Brexit is far more complicated and poses
more long-term risks than many people realize or wish to acknowledge.
Case examples, rich detail and diagrams make key issues meaningful and relatable. For instance, taking just one
policy area –the animal world –Dunt works through potential consequences of Brexit for veterinary medicine
(pp. 142–44), farming (pp. 144–45) and fishing (pp. 145–49). He uses Venn-style diagrams outlining different kinds
of membership in relation to the Single Market, the Customs Union, the European Free Trade Association and
European Economic Area (e.g. p. 68, p. 80). During the referendum campaign, these were much touted (misrepre-
sented) alternative models held out by ‘Leave’campaigners: Switzerland, Norway et al.
There are plenty of entertaining anecdotes and quotes that lighten the necessarily heavier material. Dunt
(p. 116) characterizes Liam Fox, currently (at the time of writing) International Trade Secretary as potentially, ‘the
first British cabinet minister in history to find that it would be illegal for him to carry out his role’(because it is
impossible to negotiate trade deals while the UK is part of the EU). Boris Johnson, currently Foreign Secretary, is
easily filleted too –his incoherence exposed by the simple method of quoting consecutive columns of his in The
Telegraph (pp. 110–11). David Davis –currently Secretary of State for exiting the EU –is convincingly, and worry-
ingly, shown to have demonstrated an ‘inability to grasp the rudiments of the EU’(p. 117). There are more sombre
messages (p. 30); ‘The manner in which EU migrants have been discussed –as if they are something to be used
rather than people to be respected –has been a low point in British life.’
The book has an unusual structure which helps Dunt move up and down the ladder of abstraction and it should
also reach a broad audience of readers, whatever their views on the issues. It is split into 29 short sections, organ-
ized under questions like: ‘What did we vote for?’,‘What is Article 50?’,‘What is the European project?’,‘What is
the single market?’and so on. The sections work as a whole when read consecutively because they are in a logical
© 2017 The Author. Public Administration © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
546 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm Public Administration. 2017;95:546–551.
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