scholarly journals How Brexit was made in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailsa Henderson ◽  
Charlie Jeffery ◽  
Dan Wincott ◽  
Richard Wyn Jones

The Leave majority recorded in England was decisive in determining the UK-wide referendum result. Brexit was made in England. We take this as a prompt to challenge the conventional Anglo-British mindset that animates most studies of ‘British politics’ and has shaped public attitudes research on the United Kingdom. We explore the persistence of distinctive Eurosceptic views in England and their relationship to English national identity prior to the referendum. We then model referendum vote choice using data from the Future of England Survey. Our analysis shows that immigration concerns played a major role in the Brexit referendum, alongside a general willingness to take risks, right-wing views, older age, and English national identity. Therefore, Brexit was not just made in England, but English ness was also a significant driver of the choice for Leave.

Author(s):  
Ailsa Henderson ◽  
Richard Wyn Jones

For a topic that until recently was presumed not to exist, English nationalism has transformed into an apparently obvious explanation for the Brexit result in England. Subsequent opinion polls have also raised doubts about the extent of continuing English commitment to the union of the United Kingdom itself. Yet, even as Englishness is apparently reshaping Britain’s place in the world and—perhaps—the state itself, it remains poorly understood, in part because of its unfamiliarity. It has long been assumed that nationalism is a feature of political life in the state’s periphery—Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—but not its English core. Another barrier to understanding bas been the relative lack of public attitudes data with which to explore the nature of English nationalist sentiment.This book draws on data from a survey vehicle—the Future of England Survey—specially established in 2011 to facilitate the exploration of patterns of national identity in England and their political implications. On the basis of these data, Englishness offers new arguments about the nature and effect of English nationalism on British politics, as well as how Britishness operates in different parts of Britain. Crucially, it demonstrates that English nationalism is emphatically not a rejection of Britain and Britishness. Rather, English nationalism combines a sense of grievance about England’s place within the UK with a fierce commitment to a particular vision of Britain’s past, present, and future. Understanding its Janus-faced nature—both England and Britain, as it were—is key not only to understanding English nationalism, but also to understanding the ways in which it is transforming British politics.


2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard English ◽  
Richard Hayton ◽  
Michael Kenny

AbstractThis article analyses the importance of arguments developed since 1997 by influential right-wing commentators concerning Englishness and the United Kingdom. Drawing on historical, cultural and political themes, public intellectuals and commentators of the right have variously addressed the constitutional structure of the UK, the politics of devolved government in Wales and Scotland, and the emergence of a more salient contemporary English sensibility. This article offers case studies of the arguments of Simon Heffer, Peter Hitchens and Roger Scruton, all of whom have made controversial high-profile interventions on questions of national identity, culture and history. Drawing on original interviews with these as well as other key figures, the article addresses three central questions. First, what are the detailed arguments offered by Heffer, Hitchens and Scruton in relation to Englishness and the UK? Second, what does detailed consideration of these arguments reveal about the evolution of the politics of contemporary conservatism in relation to the Union? And, third, what kinds of opportunity currently exist for intellectuals and commentators on the fringes of mainstream politics to influence the terms of debate on these issues?


2020 ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Filip Ilkowski

The article presents the analysis of activities and ideological motivations of politicians and political formations connected to those parts of non-Labour British left, that appealed during the 2016 referendum to vote for leaving the European Union by the United Kingdom. It points to key ideological pillars of this heterogenic political milieu with its common and divergent elements. The thesis is put forward in the text that, as in the case of Labour politicians, also among the left-wing outside the Labour Party, we can point to two ideological and political poles that decide to opt for leaving the EU by the UK: socialist universalism and national-identity particularism. Their key determinant was the views on immigration control, also affecting their attitude to cooperation with the anti-EU right-wing political milieu.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062097802
Author(s):  
Todd K. Hartman ◽  
Thomas V. A. Stocks ◽  
Ryan McKay ◽  
Jilly Gibson-Miller ◽  
Liat Levita ◽  
...  

Research has demonstrated that situational factors such as perceived threats to the social order activate latent authoritarianism. The deadly COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity to test whether existential threat stemming from an indiscriminate virus moderates the relationship between authoritarianism and political attitudes toward the nation and out-groups. Using data from two large nationally representative samples of adults in the United Kingdom ( N = 2,025) and Republic of Ireland ( N = 1,041) collected during the initial phases of strict lockdown measures in both countries, we find that the associations between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and (1) nationalism and (2) anti-immigrant attitudes are conditional on levels of perceived threat. As anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic increases, so too does the effect of RWA on those political outcomes. Thus, it appears that existential threats to humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic moderate expressions of authoritarianism in society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin N. Danson ◽  
Malcolm White ◽  
John R. M. Barr ◽  
Thomas Bett ◽  
Peter Blyth ◽  
...  

Abstract The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105566562110196
Author(s):  
Alex Davies ◽  
Amy Davies ◽  
Yvonne Wren ◽  
Scott Deacon ◽  
Alistair R.M. Cobb ◽  
...  

Objective: The mainstay of palatal repair in the United Kingdom is the intravelar veloplasty (IVVP). It is not always possible to align the oral mucosa in the midline to achieve tension-free repair. The addition of lateral relieving incisions may aid transposition of the oral mucosa to allow closure. The aim of this study was to explore cleft features that may predispose to a requirement for relieving incisions in order to allow palate closure. Design: We performed a national multiinstitutional retrospective study using data from the UK Cleft Collective cohort study. Patients: The study sample consisted of 474 patients who had undergone IVVP at the time of palatal closure across all 16 of the UK cleft units. Results: We found strong evidence for the requirement for relieving incisions in patients with an increased degree of clefting per the Veau classification ( P < .001), increasing palatal soft-edge width ( P < .001) and moderate evidence of an associated use in patients with Pierre Robin sequence ( P = .015). Insufficient data were available to explore the relationship between intertuberosity distance and the presence of fistula formation with the use of relieving incisions. Conclusions: The results of this study identify cleft features that increase the likelihood for requiring lateral relieving incisions to allow palatal closure. The degree to which the addition of relieving incisions to IVVP affects maxillary growth and speech outcomes is unknown. Further study is required to answer this important question.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872110230
Author(s):  
Gianna Maria Eick ◽  
Christian Albrekt Larsen

The article theorises how covering social risks through cash transfers and in-kind services shapes public attitudes towards including/excluding immigrants from these programmes in Western European destination countries. The argument is that public attitudes are more restrictive of granting immigrants access to benefits than to services. This hypothesis is tested across ten social protection programmes using original survey data collected in Denmark, Germany and the UK in 2019. Across the three countries, representing respectively a social democratic, conservative and liberal welfare regime context, the article finds that the public does indeed have a preference for easier access for in-kind services than for cash benefits. The article also finds these results to be stable across programmes covering the same social risks; the examples are child benefits and childcare. The results are even stable across left-wing, mainstream and radical right-wing voters; with the partial exception of radical right-wing voters in the UK. Finally, the article finds only a moderate association between individual characteristics and attitudinal variation across cash benefits and in-kind services.


Author(s):  
Karla Perez Portilla

This article is a theoretical analysis aimed at articulating the harm caused by media (mis)representation, and at showing existing ways in which this harm can be contested. The approaches analysed are largely from the United Kingdom. However, the issues they raise are not unique and the models explored are potentially transferable. The examples cover a range of media, including British right-wing press, television and Facebook; and characteristics protected by equality legislation in the UK such as sex, sexual orientation, race, religion and mental health stigma. Crucially, all the initiatives presented demonstrate the group-based nature of media (mis)representations, which cannot be understood and, therefore, cannot be addressed through individualistic approaches. Therefore, the article concludes that the role of groups as the targets of media (mis)representation and as potential claimants should be fully acknowledged and enabled.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Twine

AbstractThe United Kingdom government regards its regulations for stem cell research as some of the most rigorous in the world. This paper chronologically outlines the important stages in the evolution of these regulatory measures over the past twenty years, including the Warnock Report, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, the subsequent series of reports and consultations, and the establishment of the UK stem cell bank. Attending both to the discursive framing of stem cell research and the ethical issues faced, an assessment is made in terms of the appropriateness, adequacy and effectiveness of the UK's regulatory measures. Although institutional learning is detected in areas such as improving public engagement, the UK regulatory process has been open to the accusation of a scientific community regulating itself. This paper recommends that in order to avoid any possible complacency further improvements in public inclusiveness and interdisciplinary representation on regulatory committees should be sought.


Politics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Leruth ◽  
Peter Taylor-Gooby

The 2015 UK General Election campaign was mostly dominated by the issues of immigration, public debt, and income inequality. While most political parties adopted austerity-led programmes in order to reduce the level of public deficit, their stances on immigration vary significantly despite the two main parties converging on a welfare chauvinist frame. This article compares party positions to policy recommendations formulated by participants in a democratic forum as part of the ‘Welfare States Futures: Our Children’s Europe’ project in order to determine whether recent party pledges on immigration are being used by citizens in a large group discussion over the future of welfare policy in the United Kingdom. The analysis shows that while participants are committed to tougher policies in order to reduce existing levels of net migration, most of the policy priorities formulated do not match those of the two mainstream parties (i.e. the Conservative Party and the Labour Party) but rather those of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). It also demonstrates that participants’ individual political preferences do not seem to match their own positions on immigration and that there is little difference between left-leaning and right-leaning voters.


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