Whether Britons will one day start to talk of European unity in ardent tones comparable with the Brexiteers’ eulogizing of national independence is unlikely but not to be ruled out entirely. In 1979 the Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan, sensing that he was about to suffer a general election defeat by Margaret Thatcher, made an observation that has ensured his inclusion in every collection of political quotations:
You know there are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect that there is now such a sea change and it is for Mrs Thatcher.
He was right: the post-war social democratic consensus was about to be challenged by the double whammy of Thatcherism and Reaganomics, and then overwhelmed by the fall-out from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Callaghan uttered those words nearly forty years ago, which means that by his own estimate of the timing of such trends, another sea change is overdue. There are commentators who believe that Bernie Sanders’ strong performance in the Democratic primaries, the rise of Podemos in Spain and Labour’s revival in the UK are all signs of much more than a rejection of austerity and inequality, but signify the start of a mighty swing against deregulated free-market capitalism. If that is indeed the case – and those hoping for fundamental change have been deceived by enough false dawns not to get too carried away – the EU in its present form could not order back the waves, but would be forced to adapt and reform, perhaps along the lines proposed by Yanis Varoufakis in And The Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Security (2017). And if that happened, the 18-year-olds replacing elderly Brexiteers on the electoral register could well spearhead a drive to rejoin a Europe united for very different purposes, a European project they could actually talk about with a certain passion.
If no sea change happens, however, the Brexit talks currently in progress will probably not draw a line under the vexed question of Britain’s relationship with Europe. The referendum of 1975 was meant to settle the matter once and for all, and the deal, or lack of a deal, that emerges from current negotiations is unlikely to do a better job at achieving that end. Whether you see the whole story as a saga, a drama or a soap opera makes little difference: there will be more twists in the plot in the years ahead.
REFERENCES
Adams, Tim (2017), ‘Is the editor of the Daily Mail the most dangerous man in Britain?’, The Observer, 14 May. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/14/is-paul-dacre-most-dangerous-man-in-britain-daily-mail (accessed 21 June 2017).
Addison, Adrian (2017), Mail Men: The Unauthorized Story of the Daily Mail. London: Atlantic Books (Kindle edition).
Allen, Emily (2017), ‘How will the general election result affect Brexit?’, The Telegraph, 9 June. Available online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/will-general-election-result-affect-brexit/ (accessed 16 June 2017).
Ashton, Emily (2014), ‘Stick it up your Juncker’, The Sun, 2 June. Available online: https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/politics/861295/stick-it-up-your-juncker/ (accessed 7 April 2016).
Austin, John (1962), How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barford, Vanessa (2017), ‘Election results 2017: 20 things you may have missed’, BBC, 9 June. Available online: http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40211261 (accessed 16 June 2017).
Barnes, Julian (2017), ‘Diary’, London Review of Books 39/8, 20 April, pp. 41–43.
Beale, Claire (2016), ‘Agencies’ anger at failure of Stronger In campaign’, The Campaign, 30 June. Available online: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/agencies-anger-failure-stronger-campaign/1400533 (accessed 7 May 2017).
Beaumont, Paul (2016), ‘What the Euros 2016 football fan violence tells us about tribalism in Europe – and anger in the Brexit debate’, The Independent, 15 June. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/football-violence-euro-2016-france-marseille-brexit-tribalism-eu-referendum-a7083171.html (accessed 17 June 2016).
Beckett, Andy (2016), ‘Revenge of the tabloids’, The Guardian, 27 October. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/27/revenge-of-the-tabloids-brexit-dacre-murdoch (accessed 22 June 2017).
Beer, Stevie (2016), ‘Michael Gove urges voters to “free the country from a sinking ship”’, The Express, 21 June. Available online: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/681828/Michael-Gove-brands-European-Union-unemployment-creating-tragedy?_ga=1.217965846.1284735065.1486896631 (accessed 14 March 2017).
Belam, Martin (2007), ‘The “feelthy” French get hold of The Sun’s front page’, currybet.net, 16 December. Available online: http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2007/12/the-feelthy-french-get-hold-of.php (accessed 24 April 2017).
Bloor, Meriel and Thomas Bloor (2013), The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: An Introduction (2nd edn). Abingdon (UK) and New York: Routledge.
Boult, Adam (2016), ‘Millenials’ “fury” over baby boomers’ vote for Brexit’, The Telegraph, 24 June. Available online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/millenials-fury-over-baby-boomers-vote-for-brexit/ (accessed 17 May 2017).
Boyle, Simon (2016), ‘Jude Law’s minders attacked by Calais Jungle migrants during charity visit’, Sunday People, 27 February. Available online: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/jude-laws-minders-attacked-calais-7455214 (accessed 7 June 2017).
‘Brexit and the newspapers – where was IPSO?’, Hacked Off, 5 July. Available online: http://hackinginquiry.org/latest-news/brexit-and-the-newspapers-where-was-ipso-2/ (accessed 5 May 2017).
Brown, Penelope and Stephen Levinson (1978), ‘Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena’, in E. Goody (ed.), Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, Sophie (2015), ‘Daily Mail Headline From 1938 Draws Comparisons With Current Reporting Of Calais Migrant Crisis’, Huffington Post UK, 3 August. Available online: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/31/daily-mail-1938-jews_n_7909954.html (accessed 31 March 2017).
Buckley, Jemma, Tamara Cohen and Tim Sculthorpe (2016), ‘Luvvie Emma sneers at Britain: I’m European, she claims, in bizarre tirade against us quitting Brussels’, The Mail, 17 February. Available online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3449390/Emma-Thompson-leads-luvvies-telling-Britain-stay-Europe-not-retreat-cake-filled-misery-laden-grey-old-island.html (accessed 26 May 2017).
Burrows, Thomas (2016), ‘June 23 could be UK’s Independence Day says Nigel Farage as Boris says an Out vote will be FINAL and urges cabinet colleagues to back quitting the EU’, The Mail, 27 February. Available online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3466968/EU-vote-offers-Britain-chance-independence-day-says-Ukips-Nigel-Farage.html (accessed 25 May 2017).
Byrne, Ciar (2003), ‘Sun’s French stunt branded “disgusting”’, The Guardian, 21 February. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/feb/21/pressandpublishing.Iraqandthemedia (accessed 15 April 2017).
Cameron, David (2016), ‘PM statement following European Council meeting: 19 February 2016’, UK Government, 20 February. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-statement-following-european-council-meeting-19-february-2016 (accessed 23 September 2016).
Cameron, David (2016), ‘For heaven’s sake turn out – or you’ll find we’re all out’, The Independent, 20 March, pp. 4–5.
Cameron, David (2016), ‘PM’s speech on strength and security in the EU: 9 May 2016’, UK Government, 9 May. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-the-uks-strength-and-security-in-the-eu-9-may-2016 (accessed 10 February 2017).
Chilton, Brendan (2016), ‘EU does nothing for working people, says Labour Leave’s Brendan Chilton’, The Express, 15 June. Available online: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/679971/eu-referendum-brexit-working-people-labour-leave (accessed 15 June 2016).
Chovanec, Jan (2010), ‘Legitimation through differenta
tion: Discursive construction of Jacques Le Worm Chirac as an opponent to military action’, in Okulska, Urszula and Piotr Cap (eds), Perspectives in Politics and Discourse, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Clark, Natasha (2017), BREXIT WOBBLES? David Davis says Brexit talks which are due to start Monday could be delayed – and says he has prepared Britain for no deal’, The Sun, 12 June. Available online: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3778923/david-davis-says-brexit-talks-which-are-due-to-start-monday-could-be-delayed/ (accessed 17 June 2017).
Clark, Ross (2016), ‘Even the pro-EU campaign sounds very half-hearted, says Ross Clark’, The Express, 22 February. Available online: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/646459/Ross-Clark-pro-EU-stay-campaign-half-hearted (accessed 23 September 2016).
Cohen, Nick (2017), ‘Posturing behind “the people”’, The Prospect, March 2017, p. 6.
Congdon, Tim (2016), ‘Ignore Project Fear: Brexit Won’t Ruin Us’, The Standpoint, June. Available online: http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/features-june-2016-tim-congdon-ignore-project-fear-brexit-wont-ruin-us?page=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0 (accessed 30 June 2016).
Cooper, Charlie and Oliver Wright (2016), ‘EU referendum: David Cameron says Isis and Vladimir Putin “might be happy” with Brexit’, The Independent, 17 May. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-david-cameron-isis-putin-brexit-a7033741.html (accessed 18 April 2017).
Cooper, Charlie (2016), ‘Cameron is no Europhile – and that’s why his opponents tell a more convincing story’, The Independent, 6 June. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-eu-referendum-david-cameron-is-no-europhile-tell-a-convincing-story-a7067686.html (accessed 31 May 2017).
Cooper, Yvette (2016), ‘Women will get a raw deal if we pull out of the EU’, The Mirror, 8 March. Available online: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/women-raw-deal-pull-out-7512141 (accessed 22 September 2016).
Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (2016), ‘If you’re young and angry about the EU referendum, you’re right to be’, The Guardian, 24 June. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/young-angry-eu-referendum (accessed 16 May 2017).
Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (2016), ‘Family rifts over Brexit: “I can barely look at my parents”’, The Guardian, 27 June. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jun/27/brexit-family-rifts-parents-referendum-conflict-betrayal (accessed 29 June 2016).
Crystal, David (1994), An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. London: Penguin Books.
Dathan, Matt (2015), ‘Election results: 10 charts that show how Britain voted’, The Independent, 8 May. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/election-results-10-charts-that-show-how-britain-voted-10237410.html (accessed 3 April 2017).
Dawkins, Richard (2016), ‘Richard Dawkins: ignoramuses should have no say on our EU membership – and that includes me’, Prospect, 9 June. Available online: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/eu-referendum-richard-dawkins-brexit-23rd-june-ignoramuses (accessed 10 June 2016).
Dearlove, Richard (2016), ‘Brexit would not damage UK security’, The Prospect, 23 March. Available online: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/opinions/brexit-would-not-damage-uk-security (accessed 26 May 2017).
Dewson, Andrew (2016), ‘A Brexit would break up Britain – and dismantle the Commonwealth too’, The Independent, 30 May. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-boris-johnson-break-up-britain-independent-scotland-nicola-sturgeon-dismantle-commonwealth-a7056181.html (accessed 16 October 2016).
Dixon, Hugo (2016), ‘City won’t thrive if we quit EU’, Mythbust page, InFacts, 7 April. Available online: https://infacts.org/mythbusts/city-wont-thrive-quit-eu/ (accessed 5 May 2017).
Dixon, Hugo and Luke Lythgoe (2016), ‘EU-bashing stories are misleading voters – here are eight of the most toxic tales’, The Guardian, 19 May. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/19/inaccurate-pro-brexit-infacts-investigation-media-reports-eu-referendum (accessed 25 June 2016).
Dixon, Hugo and Luke Lythgoe (2016), ‘Six more Brexit myths from the Eurosceptic press’, The Guardian, 2 June. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/02/six-brexit-myths-eurosceptic-press-vote-23-june (accessed 2 June 2016).
Dodds, Laurence (2017), ‘Was this the revenge of the liberal metropolitan elite?’, The Telegraph, 9 June. Available online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/revenge-liberal-metropolitan-elite/ (accessed 14 June 2017).
Dowell, Ben (2012), ‘Rupert Murdoch: “Sun wot won it” headline was tasteless and wrong’, The Guardian, 25 April. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/apr/25/rupert-murdoch-sun-wot-won-it-tasteless (accessed 24 April 2017).
Doyle, Jack (2016), ‘Fury at Dave’s “Dodgy Dossier”: Pro-EU camp accused of new bout of cynical scaremongering’, The Mail, 1 March. Available online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3470323/Fury-Dave-s-Dodgy-Dossier-Pro-EU-camp-accused-new-bout-cynical-scaremongering.html (accessed 8 April 2017).
Dunn, Megan (2016), ‘The Europe debate matters most to millenials – and we want to stay in’, The Guardian, 15 March. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/15/europe-debate-millennials-in-eu-britain-students (accessed 20 March 2016).
Elliott, Francis and Sam Coates (2016), ‘Britain votes for Brexit’, The Times, 24 June. Available online: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/closest-call-for-britain-5rcrxnjh0 (accessed 25 June 2016).
Elwes, Jay (2016), ‘A result, but no conclusion’, The Prospect, August 2016, p. 1.
‘EU facts behind the claims: Regulation and the single market’ (2016), Full Fact, 25 April. Available online: https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-facts-behind-claims-regulation-and-single-market/ (accessed 8 March 2017).
‘Euromyths’, European Commission in the UK. Available online: http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/category/euromyths/ (accessed 30 March 2016).
‘Facts: Jobs’ (2016), Labour in for Britain. Available online: http://labourinforbritain.org.uk/facts/jobs/ (accessed 15 October 2016).
Fairclough, Norman (2001), Language and Power (2nd edn). Harlow (UK): Pearson Education.
Fairclough, Norman (2003), Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge.
Farage, Nigel (2014), ‘No one can call Ukip a racist party now’, The Times, 9 May. Available online: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nobody-can-call-ukip-a-racist-party-now-knzlj52ndn8 (accessed 27 March 2017).
Forsyth, Frederick (2016), ‘The EU was never meant to be a democracy, says Frederick Forsyth,’ Sunday Express, 10 March. Available online: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/651377/Brexit-referendum-EU-never-meant-to-be-democracy-says-Frederick-Forsyth (accessed 26 February 2017).
‘For the many not the few’ (2017), Labour Party. Available online: http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/Images/manifesto-2017/Labour%20Manifesto%202017.pdf (accessed 17 June 2017).
Foster, Alice (2016), ‘Brexit in the making: Timeline of the road to the EU referendum’, The Express, 22 June. Available online: http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/682341/Brexit-in-making-EU-referendum-2016-timeline-road-to-vote-campaign-Britain-leave-EU (accessed 25 May 2017).
Freedman, Des (2015), ‘Was it “the Sun wot won it”? Lessons from the 1992 and 2015 elections’, openDemocracyUK, 13 May. Available online: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/des-freedman/was-it-’-sun-wot-won-it’-press-influence-in-1992-and-2015-elections (accessed 29 April 2017).
Gaitskell, Hugh (1962), Speech against British membership of the EEC, Britain and the Common Market, Texts of speeches made at the 1962 Labour Party conference by the Rt. Hon. Hugh Gaitskell M.P. and the Rt. Hon. George Brown M.P. together with the policy statement accepted by the Conference, London: Labour Party, pp. 3–23. Available online: http://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1999/1/1/05f2996b-000b-4576-8b42-
8069033a16f9/publishable_en.pdf (accessed 12 February 2017).
Gayle, Damien (2016), ‘Wetherspoon chief says staying in EU bad for small businesses’, The Guardian 26 March. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/26/staying-in-eu-bad-for-small-businesses-says-wetherspoon-chief (accessed 8 March 2017).
Glaze, Ben and Dan Bloom (2016), ‘Brexit could trigger World War Three, warns David Cameron’, The Mirror, 9 May. Available online: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brexit-could-trigger-world-war-7928607 (accessed 10 May 2016).
Goodhart, David (2017), The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics. London: C. Hurst.
Gordon, Tom (2014), ‘I admit it: The man who coined Project Fear label’, Sunday Herald, 21 December. Available online: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13194407.I_admit_it__the_man_who_coined_Project_Fear_label/ (accessed 5 April 2017).
Gore, Will (2016), ‘The right-wing press no longer wields absolute power in modern Britain. This election proves it’, The Independent, 9 June. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/corbyn-success-tories-lose-seats-daily-mail-the-sun-the-express-right-wing-press-no-influence-modern-a7781126.html (accessed 22 June 2017).
Grice, Andrew (2017), ‘No matter who forms a government this is the end of hard Brexit’, The Independent, 9 June. Available online: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-general-election-hung-parliament-end-of-hard-a7781006.html (accessed 16 June 2017).
Grice, H. Paul (1975), ‘Logic and Conversation’, in P. Cole and L. Morgan (eds), Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press, 41–58.
THE LANGUAGE OF BREXIT Page 21
